European Commission investigates acquisition of Kustomer by Facebook – IT Pro – News

The European Commission will conduct an extensive investigation into the acquisition of Kustomer by Facebook. That acquisition may hinder competition in the CRM software and advertising market.

Of European Commission fears that the proposed acquisition will reduce competition in the market for CRMsoftware and that the acquisition could give Facebook an even stronger grip on the advertising market, by amassing even more personal data. The European Commission will determine whether this is really the case with an extensive investigation.

End of last year Facebook announced the acquisition of Kustomer. This is a start-up that makes software for contacting customers, including chatbots. According to the Wall Street Journal Facebook will pay $1 billion for the acquisition.

The takeover did not meet the thresholds of the European Merger Regulation, which determines when the European Commission must rule on a takeover. However, Facebook had to ask permission from Austria. However, that country referred the matter to the European Commission. A number of other countries, including the Netherlands and Belgium, also requested European research.

With the investigation, the European Commission will look at what influence the takeover would have on European users. Facebook said in announcing its acquisition plans that Kustomer would retain ownership of the data derived from customer interactions, but eventually that data would be hosted on Facebook’s infrastructure. Facebook also said it will not “automatically” use the Kustomer data for advertisements, but will give companies that use Kustomer services the option to use that data for marketing purposes, which could also result in Facebook advertisements.

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