It’s official: the US has sued Fb over the purchase of WhatsApp and Instagram.
It’s finally here: The The Federal Trade Commission of the United States is filed a lawsuit versus Fb in which the company is accused of unlawfully maintaining the monopoly of popular networks anti-competitive practices made over the years, by Acquired Instagram in 2012 and acquired WhatsApp in 2014.
The FTC claims that this type of behavior harms competition, consumers and advertisers by restricting their freedom to choose a platform.
For this reason we are looking for it permanent court order in federal court by their authority Demand that Fb sell assets like Instagram and WhatsApp, or prohibiting the company from imposing anti-competitive conditions on developers, among other things. The integration of Fb is also planned obtain prior approval for future mergers and acquisitions.
Fb bought WhatsApp and Instagram in an anti-competitive manner, the FTC says
As collected in the FTC publicationfull of it 46 states They cooperated in the investigation conducted to bring to light Mark Zuckerberg’s company’s anti-competitive practices since 2012.
With that in mind, they explain it Fb recognized that Instagram could be a “major threat” to Fband instead of trying to compete with the aplicación, opted for it 1 billion dollars in April 2012, neutralizing the direct threat posed by this popular network.
At the same time, Fb began to gain in importance messaging aplicaciones in modern society, and therefore decided received the first application in this category at this time instead of trying to compete. The agreement was therefore implemented in February 2014 Fb acquired WhatsApp for $19 billion.
But that’s not all: the complaint Fb claims It’s available anti-competitive conditions for developers to access their APIs and connection technologies. In that sense, they espectáculo that Fb would make its API available to third-party aplicaciones unless the developers choose to do so Develop competitive functionalities or promote the use of other popular networks and platforms.
For example, the FTC cites the case of Conradh na Gaeilge Came the – now unusual – short vídeo of the popular network Twitter, with Fb has blocked API access which allowed Vine users to find their Fb friends by allegedly features included which could pose a threat to Fb platforms.
Fb may have to sell WhatsApp and Instagram
Mark Zuckerberg, Founder and director ejecutivo of Fb.
If the law passed by the United States succeeds, it cánido Fb must abolish WhatsApp and Instagramtwo of its most valuable assets, especially since the company’s inception Cross data between your platforms with the aim of achieving economic profit. Which, by the way, the founders of WhatsApp and Instagram did not entirely agree with.
Now Fb has to make a decision where to go. Whether they will comply with the claims in the lawsuit unquestioningly — which is unlikely — or whether they will entrar a lengthy legal battle after seeking to have the lawsuits dismissed.