The Commission fined International Flavors & Fragrances Inc and International Flavors & Fragrances France SAS (IFF) following an investigation in which it found that a senior employee had deleted WhatsApp messages on purpose during an antitrust probe.

The messages formed part of a conversation with a rival and contained business information. They were deleted after the employee found out about the inspection of the company’s offices in March 2023.

The fine is the first issued by the Commission against a business for the deletion of correspondence on a messaging app.

The Commission may impose fines of up to one per cent of total turnover of firms that “intentionally or negligently obstruct an antitrust investigation”.

The fine in this case was 0.3 per cent of the firm’s turnover.

European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said at the time: “Compliance with antitrust investigations is of paramount importance. Companies that undergo an inspection must ensure that employees do not delete or manipulate business records. This includes communications on mobile phones.”