In a similar tone to the views of the Bundesbank on Facebook’s Libra, Germany’s Federal Cartel Office said it could look at possible antitrust-related implications of the proposed digital currency.
Germany’s Federal Cartel Office is the anti-competition watchdog in the country regulating antitrust matters. Andreas Mundt, head of the cartel told Reuters that Libra “could become a topic for us”.
In recent times, the cartel had indicted Facebook for the handling of its users’ data without their consent and its use of such position to maintain its dominance.
Last week, Germany’s central bank, Bundesbank warned banks that Libra could disrupt the existing business models of banks especially in the area of transactional banking.
“They would almost certainly become systemic by nature, not only because of their operational risks, but also in a more fundamental way: they could undermine the deposit-taking of banks and their business models,” Jens Weidmann was quoted at a conference at the Bundesbank.
Earlier this week, Facebook announced that its cryptocurrency project called Libra alongside its digital wallet will allow anyone to send and receive money from any part of the world when it is launched in by the second half of 2020.
