The European Commission granted on Thursday conditional approval for the acquisition of Kustomer by Meta Platforms Inc. The Commission investigated the deal due to concerns it could harm competition in the market for the supply of customer relationship management software. The probe focused on Meta's ability to "deny or degrade access to the application programming interfaces (APIs) for Meta's messaging channels" for Kustomer's rivals, as well as the data Meta would obtain from Kustomer's customers.
In response, Meta offered a 10-year commitment to guarantee non-discriminatory access, without charge to its publicly available APIs. "Our decision today will ensure that innovative rivals and new entrants in the customer relationship management software market can effectively compete. The commitments offered by Meta ensure that its rivals will continue to have free and comparable access to Meta's important messaging channels," said Commission Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager, responsible for competition policy.
