What was speculated about in the past months has become a reality - the US government agency Federal Trade Commission (FTC) together with almost all US states filed a lawsuit against Facebook. In it, the company accuses the company of violating competition rules by acquiring today's globally popular social platforms Instagram and WhatsApp, and proposes to sell them.
“For nearly a decade, Facebook has used its dominance and monopoly power to crush smaller rivals and stifle competition; all at the expense of ordinary users," said New York Attorney General Letitia James on behalf of the 46 plaintiff US states.
As a reminder - the Instagram application was bought by the social giant in 2012 for a billion dollars, and WhatsApp two years later for even 19 billion dollars.
Since the FTC approved both "deals" at the same time, the litigation could drag on for several years.
Facebook lawyer Jennifer Newstead said in a statement that the lawsuit is "an attempt to rewrite history" and that there are no antitrust laws that punish "successful companies." According to her, both platforms became successful after Facebook invested billions of dollars in their development.
However, the FTC sees it differently and claims that the acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp was part of a "systematic strategy" by which Facebook tried to eliminate its competition, including smaller prospective rivals such as these platforms.
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