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[Xando]

European Union antitrust regulators on Thursday said they would fine Facebook 110 million euros ($122.4 million) for providing misleading information over its purchase of messaging service WhatsApp in 2014.

Calling it a "proportionate and deterrent fine," the European Commission, which acts as the EU's competition watchdog, said Facebook had said it could not automatically match user accounts on its namesake platform and WhatsApp but two years later launched a service that did exactly that.

"The Commission has 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.

The fine would not reverse the Commission's decision to clear the purchase of WhatsApp and was unrelated to separate investigations into data protection issues, it added.

Reuters reported on Wednesday that Facebook was set to be fined.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-facebook-antitrust-idUSKCN18E0LA

 

[Dascu]

Full Commission press release: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-17-1369_en.htm

According to the Merger Regulation, the Commission can impose fines of up to 1% of the aggregated turnover of companies, which intentionally or negligently provide incorrect or misleading information to the Commission.
In setting the amount of a fine, the Commission takes into account the nature, the gravity and duration of the infringement, as well as any mitigating and aggravating circumstances.

Facebook committed two separate infringements by providing incorrect and misleading information in the merger notification form and in the reply to a Commission request for information. The Commission considers that these infringements are serious because they prevented it from having all relevant information for the assessment of the transaction.

Moreover, the Commission considers that Facebook staff were aware of the user matching possibility and that Facebook was aware of the relevance of user matching for the Commission's assessment, and of its obligations under the Merger Regulation. Therefore, Facebook's breach of procedural obligations was at least negligent. The Commission has also considered the existence of mitigating circumstances, notably the fact that Facebook cooperated with the Commission during the procedural infringement proceedings. In particular, in its reply to the Commission's Statement of Objections, Facebook acknowledged its infringement of the rules and waived its procedural rights to have access to the file and to an oral hearing. This allowed the Commission to conduct the investigation more efficiently. The Commission has taken Facebook's cooperation into account in setting the level of the fine.

On the basis of these factors, the Commission has concluded that an overall fine of €110 million is both proportionate and deterrent.

 

[Ovek]

Facebook are such a vile fucking company.

 

[TsunamiOfSwagger]

Facebook are such a vile fucking company.

TsunamiOfSwagger likes this comment.

 

[Dead Man]

Yeah, that'll do it.

 

[Art Teitlebaum]

Fine is too low, but justified as such. FB tried to deceive the public during the WApp takeover.

 

[G.ZZZ]

Fake commies fining our great companies because their own low energy companies sucks, sad!

 

[Striek]

Disgustingly small fine for a $20 billion acquisition. Capping fines at 1% of turnover means theres no incentive not to mislead.

 

[andythinkpad]

I was hoping 5 billions.

 

[G.ZZZ]

Disgustingly small fine for a $20 billion acquisition. Capping fines at 1% of turnover means theres no incentive not to mislead.

This is not about an illicit transation though. Ideally, as conditions have changed they could re-examine the acquisition i think.

 

[Morat]

The thing is, as long as these businesses can break the law, swallow the fine and continue to make profits nothing will change. Until it becomes normal for criminal charges to be brought, and brought against the top this will continue.

Spoiler

So it will never end.

 

[Verelios]

Wow, what assholes. And this fine is pretty much just slicing off a thumbnail of Facebook's profits.

 

[Sidewinder]

The thing is, as long as these businesses can break the law, swallow the fine and continue to make profits nothing will change. Until it becomes normal for criminal charges to be brought, and brought against the top this will continue.

Spoiler

So it will never end.

This! As long as the decision makers won't face charges and be sent to jail, nothing will change, same applies to the finance world, where banks will continue to happily fuck over their customers and cheat wherever they can. It's ok for them to earn more in one year than a single average person would earn in 300 years, but facing the consequences of their decisions of course isn't.

 

[CTLance]

That's hella cheap.

That whole cooperation by just shutting up and accepting your fate thing seems exploitable. From both ends.
From the company side: Feel free to lie as much as you can as long as you plainly accept any fines headed your way - they will be a tiny slap on the wrist, anyway, so who cares.
From the EC side: STFU and take your fines, if you dare to struggle we're gonna increase them to a genuinely painful level. Obey or get effed up the a.

Oh well. At least they were caught and fined. That's something, I guess?