Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Is Facebook Next Regulatory Target in Europe?

Is Facebook the next target for European Union antitrust authorities? Possibly. 

Ostensibly, Facebook only wants a single, unified framework. Facebook VP Richard Allan warns that multiple, overlapping investigations of Facebook, instead of a single EU policy, would lead to higher costs and a decrease in the rate at which new features are developed.

Facebook’s concern partly is a “balkanization” of rules. National regulators in a number of countries, including Belgium and the Netherlands, appear to be initiating multiple, overlapping investigations of Facebook.

“In effect, this would mark a return to national regulation,” said Allan. “If it is allowed to stand, complying with EU law will no longer be enough; businesses will instead have to comply with 28 independently shifting national variants.”

The unstated concern is simply that antitrust investigations seem to be proliferating. The other, unstated issue, is growing regulatory scrutiny, as Google now faces.

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