The European Commission (EC) has begun its investigation into Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp. This investigation has been requested by Facebook itself to ensure an uninterrupted functioning of the service post the acquisition throughout Europe. Approaching the EC has allowed Facebook to address any concerns at a macro level rather than deal with similar queries across multiple markets within Europe.

As a part of its investigation the EC has approached telecom operators, regulators and even Facebook’s competitors for feedback on the deal. The European Union (EU) anti-trust officials have sent a 70 page detailed questionnaire to the competitors as well as customers of Facebook and WhatsApp, after they were formally notified of the deal on August 29.

The findings of the probe will be taken into account and a decision on the deal (or whether there is a need for further investigation) will be out by the first week of October. Facebook is hopeful to complete the acquisition this year though the permissible deadline for completion has been pushed to August 2015.

Meanwhile in the US, the Federal Trade Commission has already given the deal the go ahead, however it has emphasized the need for WhatsApp to maintain its current privacy level and protect customer data after objection raised by privacy protection organization EPIC.

Global technology research and advisory firm, Ovum does not expect the deal to face much trouble due to this investigation but expects further guidelines around personal data protection for WhatsApp users.  

Neha Dharia, Senior Analyst, Consumer Services at Ovum said, “WhatsApp needs to ensure that personal data is protected at all times, as any misuse or leakage of data could cause it to lose its market leader status to strong competitors such as Line and WeChat that are not too far behind. The feedback requested by the EC deals with topics such as the impact of the deal on consumer choice, innovation and the impact on traditional services such as SMS and voice calls.”

Ovum estimates that services such as WhatsApp have cannibalized SMS revenue by over $32.5 billion globally in 2013. WhatsApp is also set to release its much awaited voice calling service which was due to release in the second quarter of this year.

The introduction of the voice calling service can have a negative impact on operator voice calling revenue, as it will be introduced to WhatsApp’s 600 million strong active user base.

Speaking about the impact of the investigation on the Indian market, Neha Dharia said, “The main repercussions of the EC investigation for the Indian market will be if in the eventuality the EC finds the deal against healthy competition and blocks the acquisition. In that case, markets such as India will also have to look into the implication of the deal on the Indian setting. This is interesting from the Indian context, as very recently TRAI has ruled against charging OTT players such as WhatsApp an additional surcharge. In case the EC does find an issue with the deal, then we can expect TRAI to revisit the topic about OTT services in India.”