January 31, 2022
The EU antitrust agency has given the go-ahead to Meta / Facebook to acquire U.S. customer service startup Kustomer. The approval was reached after Facebook agreed to give competitors free access to its messaging channels for 10 years.
The Commission’s decision to clear Facebook-Kustomer is conditional on full compliance with the commitments. A trustee to oversee implementation before the transaction is completed.
According to the commission, Meta promises to guarantee non-discriminatory access without charge to public APIs for its messaging platforms to competing customer service CRM software providers and new entrants.
Meta also promises to provide “a core API access parity commitment.” This means the company will maintain the same level of feature capabilities for Kustomer rivals/new entrants if it improves or expands the functionality of its social media platforms and messaging platforms.
“Our decision today will ensure that innovative rivals and new entrants in the customer relationship management software market can effectively compete,” said EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager in a statement.
For more information, read the original story in Reuters.
