The
European Commission is understood to be conducting a preliminary competition
investigation of Facebook’s Libra, according to a report by Bloomberg.
The
Libra Association is a group of 28 independent companies including Mastercard,
PayPal and eBay, who oversee the cryptocurrency.
It
appears that the Commission’s concerns relate to how the Libra Association will
collect and share customer data, integration within Face book applications such
as WhatsApp and Messenger, and whether Facebook could use Libra to foreclose
rivals from fintech and related markets.
Facebook
is expected to launch Libra and subsidiary, Calibra, to create an application
that will allow Libra users to make payments, next year.
The
European Commission is not the only regulator to have expressed concerns about
Libra. The UK Information Commission and the US Federal Trade Commission have
expressed concerns about the privacy risks presented by Libra’s digital
currency and platform.
The
European Commission also fined Facebook €110 million in 2017 for providing
misleading information during the antitrust review of the Facebook/WhatsApp
merger.
The
European Commission has not commented on the case which is at an early stage at
most. It is likely that should the Commission’s inquiry deepen, the
parties will be given an opportunity to amend their governance rules.
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