The FTC Refiles Its Antitrust Charges Against Facebook
One of the US government’s most powerful regulatory agencies, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), has refiled its historic antitrust lawsuit against Facebook, claiming it’s a monopoly that is hurting competition and harming consumers.
The move comes after a judge dismissed the FTC’s initial lawsuit in June for being too vague, which at the time was a big win for Facebook. In response, the FTC has refiled its lawsuit — and instead of taking a new approach, it’s sticking with its main arguments against Facebook but supporting them with more detail. It’s yet another sign that the regulatory push to rein in the power of Facebook and other major tech companies like Amazon and Apple isn’t slowing down when it encounters hurdles.
The amended suit includes new evidence about how the company allegedly engages in monopolistic behavior to crush its competitors and keep its users hooked on its platform without adequate pressure to improve the quality of its products. The crux of the FTC’s argument is that Facebook has failed to make meaningful innovations on its mobile app on its own in the past several years. Instead, it resorted to what the FTC says is an illegal “buy-or-bury” strategy in which it either shut out outside apps by limiting their access to the Facebook platform or acquired apps like Instagram and WhatsApp that were successful competitors.
