The European Commission has opened an antitrust investigation into Facebook's new Libra cryptocurrency. Meanwhile, Libra hasn’t even been launched yet, and the EC antitrust regulators are conducting a preliminary investigation, studying the project materials. The official investigation reason is “potential anti-competitive behavior” by the Libra Association. The Commission fears that the payment system will have unequal benefits over other companies in this sector. The antitrust authorities have reasons for concern. Apart from Facebook, giants like PayPal, Mastercard, Vodafone, Visa, Uber, Booking Holdings, eBay, and thousands of other companies have joined the Libra project. However, Facebook, having access to the personal data of 2.4 bln users, will be second to none.
European and American policymakers are cautious about the initiative. French Minister of the Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire, for example, said that Facebook’s Libra “must not transform into a sovereign currency.” He was supported by German Member of the European Parliament Markus Ferber who suggested that Facebook could become a “shadow bank” operating uncontrollably in “a regulatory nirvana”. The co-founder of Facebook Kris Hughes have aggravated the situation saying that the introduction of Libra means less monetary-policy control from central banks and more from private businesses. According to Hughes, it is an actual decentralization of power from central banks of developing countries to such transnational corporations as the US Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank.
