Facebook charged with misleading EU over $22 billion WhatsApp takeover | Ars Technica

Facebook charged with misleading EU over $22 billion WhatsApp takeover | Ars Technica: "Brussels' competition officials issued a charge sheet against Facebook on Tuesday, in which it is alleged that the free content ad network failed to disclose that "the technical possibility of automatically matching Facebook users' IDs with WhatsApp users' IDs already existed" at the time of the merger.

 Antitrust chief Margerthe Vestager said that companies must provide "accurate information" during routine competition probes into planned acquisitions.

"They must take this obligation seriously," she said. "In this specific case, the commission's preliminary view is that Facebook gave us incorrect or misleading information during the investigation into its acquisition of WhatsApp. Facebook now has the opportunity to respond."

 Facebook has been slapped with a so-called Statement of Objections by the commission, which claims that the multinational "intentionally, or negligently, submitted incorrect or misleading information" to the competition wing of the EC, thereby allegedly breaching its obligations under the EU Merger Regulation." 'via Blog this'

Predictions 2017: the Impact of Communications Law

Predictions 2017: "Although it is highly likely that the various parts of the Investigatory Powers Act 2016 will be brought in in a phased manner, we can expect to see changes to the data retention framework imminently, given the sunset provision in DRIPA. Even though the legislation will be in final, enacted form, there will be plenty of work to do on the codes of practice, as well as ensuring that systems and processes meet the new legal requirements.

The Act will permit a broader range of obligations to be imposed on providers of private telecommunication systems than has been the case to date," 'via Blog this'