A couple of states in the United States may be bringing a lawsuit against social media giant, Facebook as early as next week. With New York leading the group of states looking to sue Facebook for the possibilities of violating antitrust regulations. It has been investigating the social platform for a while now and will be certain by next week if the case is strong enough to be taken to court.
The Federal Trade Commission, FTC had first brought a lawsuit against Facebook and this may have prompted states to follow suit. The FTC was commissioned as a watchdog that protects consumers’ interests by preventing unfair or fraudulent practices in the marketplace.
On Wednesday, the commission decided they would proceed with the lawsuit, and the case might be based on antitrust issues. The commission intends to cooperate with the district court or the administrative law Judge to process the complaints.
However, more than forty states are involved in the forthcoming lawsuit filed against Facebook and this also will be recorded as the second significant case filed against a high profiled tech company in 2020.
The social media giant has declined to comment concerning the matters, making it even weird just as the spokesperson representing the New York attorney general’s office also refused to comment on the matter.
However, the states are still yet to reveal the basis of their complaints, even Facebook claims it doesn’t know what the FTC may be targeting in its operations.
Aside from the series of antitrust issues Facebook had experienced, the social media company has also been accused of denying startups the chance to compete, whereby Facebook habitually attempts to buy potential competitors or even launch features on its already established site that may kill the smaller company.
The Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions are a clear example of the problem Facebook may be facing because you see, some experts believe that both companies would have taken on Facebook down the line if they had not been bought by Facebook.
On Tuesday, Facebook acquired Kustomer, a startup company that serves as a tool that modifies its customer service.
While Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg addressed the WhatsApp and Instagram acquisition issue, Facebook’s Chief Executive said that his platform serves as a powerhouse to startups, with intentions to acquire them so they can grow rapidly and if you look at it from that angle, he may have a point. The bigger point is intention and it may eventually be an uphill task for these states to prove any wrong doing along this line.
Facebook has been accused in the past of antitrust practices but it has also received commendations in some areas too. It looks like the WhatsApp owner is making some within the EU to smile as they say Facebook is an example to other tech companies when it comes to European tax policies.
Lately Alphabet (Google’s parent company) and Facebook have recently contended with lawsuits that emanated from the FTC. In 2019, the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice embarked on an antitrust lawsuit against tech giants, aiming to investigate most tech companies for practices that may have affected smaller startups.
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