On Thursday 27 January, the European Commission approved the proposed acquisition of Kustomer by Meta (formerly Facebook). This authorisation is subject to full compliance with the commitments offered by Meta.
According to Margrethe Vestager, executive vice-president responsible for competition policy, “the commitments offered by Meta ensure that its rivals will continue to have free and comparable access to Meta’s important messaging channels”.
Meta’s popular messaging channels, WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger, are important means of interaction between businesses and their customers.
The Commission was concerned that the transaction, as initially notified, would distort competition in the market for the supply of customer relationship management (CRM) software and in the market for the supply of customer service and support CRM software.
In particular, the Commission examined the data that Meta would obtain from Kustomer’s customers.
Meta has offered comprehensive access commitments for a period of ten years, such as guaranteeing non-discriminatory access, without charge, to its publicly available APIs (application programming interface) for its messaging channels to competing customer service CRM software providers and new entrants.
In addition, to the extent that features or functionalities of Messenger,Instagram messaging or WhatsApp currently used by Kustomer’s customers may be improved or updated, Meta will also make equivalent improvements available to Kustomer’s competitors and new entrants.
Meta is a multinational company based in the United States.
Kustomer, founded in 2015, is a US-based company that offers a CRM Software as a Service (SaaS) tool specialising in customer service. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)