As rumored last week, the European Commission has not objected to the purchase of the WhatsApp application by Facebook becomes effective and recognized in the European territory. And it is that the indications, in addition to the characteristics of the case, indicated that there would be no obstacles due to the creation of monopolies Even more so after the FTC (US Federal Trade Commission) approves the process first.Of course, after the recommendation of this same American organization on the attention that WhatsApp should continue to pay to the privacy of its users, it was expected that the European Commission was not less. And he has surprised with his decision, but not precisely for defending the privacy of the data of the users of WhatsApp
Thus, the European Commission has made public and official its approval of the purchase process of WhatsApp by Facebook Its resolution has focused on three points with which it analyzes thatmeasures are not carried out monopoly for the acquisition, not infringing damages against the communication services of consumers, thesocial networking services or the services of on the network.
Regarding the communication, the European Commission affirms understand that, in the mobile market where his research has focused, there are no risks for buying WhatsApp And it is that Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp are not in direct competition, and there are different ways of using them (one is based on contacting users of the social network and another with those of the contact list). Also, in the app market there are a lot of alternatives available like LINE, WeChat, Snapchat, Hangouts, etc.
Regarding social networks, despite the fact that the investigation by the Commission would determine WhatsApp as one more social network in competition with Facebook , affirms in its resolution that it is a market in constant evolution. And it understands that they are not direct competition for the functions and characteristics of Facebook, which are much richer and more complete in their case.
But what is truly remarkable about the resolution is found in the third point of analysis, which talks about the in services, in addition to other related issues such as privacy of users.
Thus, the European Commission understands that Facebook could introduce WhatsApp to WhatsApp without problem Furthermore, it states that it could collect information from WhatsApp to generate targeted information without any kind of impediment since “it would not raise competition concerns”. And the thing is that the European Commission washes its hands of and makes it clear that “ Any privacy concerns arising from the increased concentration of data in Facebook's control as a result of the transaction do not fall within the scope of EU competition law”
Something like they don't care about privacy issues that may occur from this purchase process. Undoubtedly, an idea that is shocking when taking into account that the European Commission is one of the organizations that has protested the most after the case of the spying on the social network Facebook and other organizations such as the National Security Agency of the United States.
