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THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION has fined US social media giant Facebook €110 million for providing incorrect and misleading information on its takeover of WhatsApp.
“Today’s decision sends a clear signal to companies that they must comply with all aspects of EU merger rules, including the obligation to provide correct information,” EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in a statement.
“The Commission must be able to take decisions about mergers’ effects on competition in full knowledge of accurate facts,” Vestager said.
Facebook said in response that it cooperated with the Commission and that the errors made were not intentional.
“We’ve acted in good faith since our very first interactions with the Commission and we’ve sought to provide accurate information at every turn,” a Facebook spokesperson said.
“The errors we made in our 2014 filings were not intentional and the Commission has confirmed that they did not impact the outcome of the merger review. Today’s announcement brings this matter to a close.”
EU regulators cleared the then $19 billion (€17.065 million) Facebook acquisition of WhatsApp in late 2014, finding no reason to believe it would dampen competition in the burgeoning social media sector.
In its statement today, the Commission recalled that the merger rules require companies to provide regulators with the accurate information essential to any review.
It noted that when Facebook notified the Commission of the acquisition in 2014, the company had said it would “be unable to establish reliable automated matching between Facebook users’ accounts and WhatsApp users’ accounts”.
“However, in August 2016, WhatsApp announced updates to its terms of service and privacy policy, including the possibility of linking WhatsApp users’ phone numbers with Facebook users’ identities,” it said.
After launching a probe last year, the Commission “found that, contrary to Facebook’s statements in the 2014 merger review process, the technical possibility of automatically matching Facebook and WhatsApp users’ identities already existed in 2014, and that Facebook staff were aware of such a possibility.”
The Commission said today decision and the fine would have no impact on its October 2014 clearance of the deal.
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A good & timely article. Unfortunately, we will never make progress as long as the deterrent, the sanction, is so miniscule as to be irrelevant. This is not even the fault of the judiciary as their hands are tied in that the maximum permitted ‘punishment’ for wildlife/ environmental crimes is so inconsequential. The stautes/legislation needs to be amended & updated as a matter of urgency
I agree we need enforcement of laws and bigger penalties but a greater emphasis needs to be on incentives for Farmers and landowners to steward the land in an environmentally sensitive way. It will also take some reeducation after decades of encouraging farmers to do exactly the opposite!
@Emma Smith: Morning Emma, ‘cart before the horse’ though isn’t it? Proper enforcement AND serious sanctions need to be front& centre
So it’s the farmers’ fault – and it often is.
But no mention of the Mourne mountain fire, started by an arsonist. Or the Killarney fire, started by a portable barbacue – not a typical farmers item.
Ireland has less than 2% native forests. The rest are non native evergreens. It would be nice to replace them with native trees.
@Shane Gallagher: Why? They won’t produce lumber to build your home or make paper.
@Hunt Ley: Evergreen forests in Ireland are not grown to be used for construction or producing paper. We import those products. The main intended purpose for evergreen forests was to offset carbon dioxide emissions. The government provides grants to landowners willing to use their land for forestry.
OK. If a fire begins naturally, say from lightening, should we as humans, interfere and put that fire out or allow it to burn uncontrollably?
@AnthonyK: Humans planted forests and built houses and would naturally protect them.
@AnthonyK: Before we were brainwashed into thinking that paradise is somewhere else we used to worship nature and the natural world. Real shame those belief systems were not allowed to evolve really, we would certainly be more involved with maintaining and utilising the planet, we’re so far from anything like that tho, addicted to the effects of another human construct, that of wealth.
Pádraic, do us one on why we should be re introducting the Beaver, a move that would do more for the restoration of our natural state than any other. “Oh but they were never here” – bollocks.!
@Nicholas Grubb: But sure they weren’t.
What a load of absolute nonsense article
Where is my comment that was posted hours ago? Just because it disagrees with Fogarty’s anti forestry distribution is no reason to remove it.
Fogarty is neither a forester nor a silviculutist. Just because he limes trees foes not make him an authority.
Shame on the Journal for partisan censorship.
@Hunt Ley: What do you expect its like China for the propaganda on the journal.
Maybe an approach of eco tourism in areas the farmers get tax free earnings from cycling, walking, wildlife photography individuals or groups bed and breakfast for the particular months mentioned not to cut or till the land would maybe help nature. Any damage to the local area by farmers or county council will result in fines or cut back in county council amount of money given by central government. Farmers any EU funding also cut as a deterrent.
have your say