This accusation opens the company to a possible fine of 1 percent of its turnover, or about USD 179 million based on 2015 revenues. However, it will not affect the ECs approval of the USD 22 billion merger in 2014 when Facebook had indicated in its notification of the planned acquisition that it would be unable reliably to match the two companies user accounts.
The issue regards a WhatsApp privacy policy change in August 2016 when it said it would share some users phone numbers with parent company Facebook, triggering investigations by a number of EU data protection authorities.
Facebook has until January 31 to respond. If the Commissions concerns are confirmed it can impose a fine on the US company of up to 1 percent of turnover. In response to separate concerns from EU data protection watchdogs Facebook has agreed to stop sharing WhatsApp users information with Facebook for the purposes of improving Facebook products and advertising experiences, according to a news from Reuters.
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