The Meta Digital Emporio, until a few years ago Facebook, is at risk of breaking into shatter. Today a trial has been initiated in Washington DC, which has been cooking since 2020, in which the United States government through the Federal Commerce (FTC) has accused the technological one led by Mark Zuckerberg to try to end the competition within the land of social networks through the Purchase of WhatsApp and Instagram. Platforms developed by third parties that were acquired by Facebook in the first half of the last decade.
If the judge fails against the interests of the company, it can be forced to detach from these two applications, which could mean a deadly blow to the finish line, since it is estimated that the firm obtains approximately half of its advertising income in the United States of Instagram.
During the trial, Daniel Matheson, the main litigator of the FTC, argued against James Boasberg, judge in charge of the case, that when acquiring the property of WhatsApp and Instagram, he made it clear that, for the company, “compete (with the rest of the platforms) was too hard” so “it would be easier to buy from their rivals” directly. That was what, according to the agency, led the company to pay $ 1 billion for Instagram in 2012 and 22,000 million per WhatsApp in 2014. As a result, “consumers stay without reasonable alternatives to resort to” outside the emporium. Meta, according to the FTC, also pursued with acquisitions to prevent the ‘apps’ from falling into the hands of other ‘Big Tech’, such as Google.
Difficult to prove
Obviously, Meta denies that you have built a digital monopoly with these acquisitions. From the company they have indicated that, in reality, users are currently spending “more time in Tiktok and YouTube than on Facebook or Instagram” and figure their total market share in 30%.
Be that as it may, legal experts have serious doubts that FTC aspirations come to fruition; To begin with, because the Federal Agency will have to show that the company would not be in the position in which it is going to the day today if it had not acquired the tools of the competition. Something that is difficult to ensure.
The trial is expected to be held for the next two months before the sentence is known, presumably at the beginning of July. In the event that the FTC is victorious, a second trial would be pending in which it should demonstrate that the target disinvestment in WhatsApp and Instagram would restore competition in the field of social networks. Safety, years before a sale was concretized.
