Which EU institution fined Facebook over misleading WhatsApp takeover information in 2017?

The European Commission fined Facebook over misleading information about its planned WhatsApp takeover in 2017.

The €110 million penalty concerned Facebook’s 2014 notification for its acquisition of WhatsApp. Facebook had told the Commission that it could not reliably match Facebook and WhatsApp user accounts automatically. The Commission later found that this technical capability existed, making the earlier filing misleading.

The case was about merger-control information, not a general privacy fine. Facebook had acquired WhatsApp for about $19 billion in 2014, and WhatsApp later introduced data-sharing options involving its parent company. That later privacy controversy is often confused with the Commission’s separate 2017 penalty.

The European Commission is the EU’s executive body and enforces EU competition rules in merger cases. The European Parliament debates and helps make laws, the European Council sets broad political priorities, and the European Central Bank manages monetary policy for the euro area; none of those institutions imposed this particular fine.