Facebook and Kustomer

The European Commission (EC) on Monday began examining the impact on the European market of Facebook's acquisition of Kustomer, headquartered in New York, which specialises in creating tools to facilitate the online customer experience. This was announced by the European Commission's press service on Monday. The EU antitrust regulator has expressed concern that the deal could further reinforce Facebook's dominant position in the EU digital market.

"The European Commission has launched a detailed investigation to assess the proposed transaction under European merger law. The EC is worried that the deal could reduce competition in the online customer service software market. The European Commission is also worried that the deal could further strengthen Facebook's position in the online advertising market and that the deal would increase the significant amount of data available to Facebook to personalise online advertising," the EC said in a statement.

"It is crucial to carefully assess problematic acquisitions by companies that already dominate the market. This is particularly true in the digital sector, where Facebook has a leading position in both online advertising and in the market for channels to host these ads, such as WhatsApp, Messenger or Instagram," the EC press office quoted European Commission deputy head Margrethe Vestager as saying.

After an investigation, the European Commission could ban Facebook from implementing the deal or approve it on condition that Facebook relinquishes a number of assets acquired as part of it.

Facebook announced an agreement to acquire Kustomer at the end of November last year. The amount of the deal was not announced, but, according to The Wall Street Journal's sources, it was just over $1 billion. Facebook representatives said that they intended to "improve and update the product offered by Kustomer" and thereby please users of the service.