The US antitrust authority is suing the digital giant to force it to resell WhatsApp and Instagram. The other Gafa are also in the crosshairs.
To prevent Facebook from swallowing up all the young shoots that could one day weaken its dominant position, the American authorities are ready to dismantle the empire built by Mark Zuckerberg. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the antitrust authority, dares to cite Facebook’s forced resale of WhatsApp and Instagram as a solution to the problem the seriousness of which, after years of denial, it finally recognizes. Facebook’s serial acquisitions are sucking up innovative companies and destroying potential competitors. Letitia James, New York State Attorney General, doesn’t mince words: “Facebook is using its vast resources of data and money to crush or hamper what the company saw as potential threats… They narrowed down the choices consumers, they have stifled innovation and they have degraded the privacy of millions of Americans. ”
This marks an important turnaround, because it is the same FTC which, controlled by Democrats, gave the green light to Facebook to buy Instagram in 2012, then its blessing for the acquisition of WhatsApp in 2014. The task that set the FTC will be legally complicated. It will not be enough to show that Facebook wanted to swallow a potential competitor. After all, it’s fair game. It will also be necessary to prove that the actions of Facebook after the acquisition effectively prevented a rival from emerging and killed innovation.
The offensive has nevertheless become politically correct. In Washington, Democrats and Republicans are alarmed by the weight of the digital giants in economic life and in consumer choices. The parallel procedure, with the same objective, launched the same day by the elected prosecutors of 46 American states, joined by those of the territory of Guam and the federal capital, Washington DC, is proof of this …
Read more: Le Figaro of 12/11/20 pages 22 and 23
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