EU officials said they are concerned that Librae may set “possible competition restrictions” on the use of information and consumer data to be exchanged.
Editor’s note: This article is from “Tencent Technology”, review / commitment, authorized to reprint.
Two months ago, Facebook announced that it would create a digital currency called Libra (also a cryptocurrency). This news caused an uproar in the world, and financial regulators in various countries worried about the Libra Impact on the traditional financial system and bring various issues such as consumer privacy protection. This new thing has also triggered antitrust concerns in the regulatory authorities. According to the latest news from foreign media, a document seen by an authoritative media shows that the EU anti-monopoly regulator is already investigating Facebook’s Libracoin digital currency project.
According to foreign media reports, the EU authorities said in a questionnaire sent earlier this month that the European Commission “is currently investigating potential anti-market competition related to the Libra Coin Association” and is concerned about the proposed digital currency. The payment system will unfairly exclude competitors.
According to this document, EU officials said they are concerned that Librae may set “possible competition restrictions” on the use of information and consumer data to be exchanged. This document is a standard part of the EU’s early collection of information surveys.
It is reported that this is not the first anti-monopoly investigation conducted by the European Commission on Facebook. Prior to this, the European Commission launched a preliminary anti-monopoly investigation project on Facebook, which suspected that Facebook took advantage of its dominant position in the social networking market and crowded out other competitors’ software.
In the past, in addition to Facebook, the European Commission has also conducted antitrust investigations against many US technology companies, including Google and Apple. Among them, for the Google, the European Commission conducted a total of three investigations, issued a multi-billion dollar ticket, and required to rectify various monopolistic behaviors, such as providing other non-Google default search engines in the Android operating system.
There was no comment on the European Commission’s investigation into the Facebook Libracoin project.
The Menlo Park, Calif.-based company had previously promised to address all of the concerns raised by government regulators before the introduction of cryptocurrencies, a process that may take some time.
Global Currency
Leading a Libra coin by a social network whose users exceed the combined population of China and the United States represents a potential challenge that financial regulators have never encountered: they can neither control nor manage this.a global currency.
The EU survey said that regulators are still studying the possibility of integrating Facebook’s support for Libra’s apps into Facebook services such as WhatsApp and Messenger. Facebook used to say that it wants to integrate mobile payments and mobile chat software.
The report shows that the focus of the European Commission’s antitrust investigation is on the governance structure and membership of the Libra Currency Association.
As a founding member of the Libra Coin Association, Visa declined to comment, and the Libra Credit Association representative did not immediately respond to the request for comment. MasterCard did not immediately comment.
The European Commission’s Financial Services spokesperson said that in addition to the anti-monopoly sector, other EU regulators are monitoring the market development of cryptocurrency assets and payment services, including Libra and its development.
The EU Data Protection Supervisor is also concerned about how Libra Coin will share consumer payment or asset information. Earlier this month, they said that Facebook may combine “a large amount of personal information, financial information and cryptocurrencies to aggravate privacy concerns about network design and data sharing arrangements.”
Swiss regulation
According to foreign media reports, a spokesperson for the Swiss government’s Libra Credit Regulatory Authority said on Tuesday that it expects to receive detailed information about Facebook’s Libra currency cryptocurrency by the end of this month.
Facebook’s plan to launch the Libra coin next year has triggered warnings from politicians, regulators and central bank officials that it must be closely monitored to avoid any damage to the international financial system.
Facebook Libracoin project director Marcus told US senators earlier this year that he expects the Swiss government to become the privacy regulator of Libra, but at the time the Swiss Federal Data Protection Agency said it had not yet acquired it with the management of Libra contact.
In July of this year, the above-mentioned Swiss regulator asked the Geneva-based Libracoin Association to provide more information. The Libra Currency Association is responsible for overseeing the proposed digital currency.
The agency spokesperson said that the agency has set the deadline for the association to provide the required information at the end of August. She said that the association promised to respond at the end of July.
It is reported that a delegation of the US Congress will visit Switzerland this week to discuss this project. Earlier, the US Congress held a hearing on the Libra coin, and the above-mentioned responsible person Marcus proposed a variety of questions about the Libra coin.