Facebook Hit With $122M Fine By EU

The European Union has fined Facebook 110 million euros, or about $122 million, for giving misleading statements during the social media giant’s $19 billion acquisition of messaging service WhatsApp in 2014. Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s antitrust chief, said Facebook had assured the EU it would not combine its data with that of WhatsApp. But last August, Facebook announced it would do just that, making data about WhatsApp’s one billion users available to the rest of the company. “Today’s decision sends a clear signal to companies that they must comply with all aspects of E.U. merger rules,” Vestager said in a statement. “And it imposes a proportionate and deterrent fine on Facebook. The commission must be able to take decisions about mergers’ effects on competition in full knowledge of accurate facts.” Facebook has said it will not appeal the penalty. Just days before the fine was imposed, Dutch and French privacy regulators found that the company had broken strict data protection rules.