EU Sends Questionnaire to Rivals Over Facebook Deal With WhatsApp

In an unusual move, European Union antitrust officials have sent a second wave of extremely detailed questions to the competitors and customers of Facebook and messaging service WhatsApp.

EU antitrust officials are trying to understand what separates a social network from a messaging application and get to the heart of the competitive landscape. The move kicks off the EU's formal review of the deal, which could be a test case for how to apply EU competition law to the new world of social media, and comes amid broader concerns in Europe regarding the power of US technology companies.