Facebook Inc.’s Libra probed by EU regulators for competition risks

• The current investigation into Libra is necessary to ascertain if risks for competition exist.
• The Libra Association members have been asked to fill a questionnaire regarding membership conditions.

Regulators in the European Union launched another probe into Facebook’s proposed cryptocurrency Libra. The new probe is to find out if Libra threatens competition. According to the European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager the investigation is necessary and is not different from other new services launching into the market.

“We can even look at new services even before they’re introduced. That’s what we’re doing right now, with Facebook’s plan for a new cryptocurrency, known as Libra, which it announced back in June.”

Vestager continued during a conference in Bergen, Norway:

“We’re looking at whether those proposals create risks for competition, so we can be ready to act swiftly if an intervention were to prove necessary.”

According to Reuters, she asked the members forming the Libra Association to fill a questionnaire regarding the conditions of membership. Libra Association is supposed to have 100 members but currently has only 28. The association will oversee the governance of the digital currency.