Forty-eight U.S. states, led by New York, are investigating whether Facebook violated antitrust laws by filing a formal lawsuit against the social media giant on Dec. 9.
This will be the second major lawsuit against a major technology company this year. Previously, the Justice Department sued Alphabet Inc.’s Google in October.
Facebook declined to comment. A spokesman for the New York attorney general’s office declined to comment.
The commissioners of the Federal Trade Commission, which met last week, can file related complaints with administrative judges or district courts.
The states plan to file antitrust lawsuits against Facebook in their complaints, arguing that Facebook’s acquisitions of rivals Instagram and Whats App have caused consumer harm.
One of the allegations against Facebook is that the company intends to acquire potential smaller competitors, often at a high premium. These included Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before Congress that the company has a range of competitors, including other tech giants.
He defended the controversial acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp, saying the social media platform helped them grow from small, insignificant companies to powerful ones.
The U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission began antitrust investigations into four major tech companies in 2019, which also included Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc. Shortly thereafter, the Attorneys General joined forces to investigate Google and Facebook.
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