European commission says fine is a ‘clear signal’ to companies that they must comply with EU merger rulesFacebook has been fined €110m (£94m) by the EU for providing misleading information about its 2014 takeover of WhatsApp. The European commission said it had imposed a “proportionate” fine on the technology company to send a clear signal that all firms must comply with EU competition rules. “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,’” said the EU competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager. A French data watchdog fined Facebook €150,000 on Tuesday for failing to prevent users’ data being accessed by advertisers. The last big revision of EU merger rules was in 2004, the year Mark Zuckerberg launched ‘The Facebook’ at Harvard University, when WhatsApp founders were still working at the then internet powerhouse Yahoo.

Source: The Guardian May 18, 2017 08:56 UTC