Our aim is to roll back Facebook’s anticompetitive conduct and restore competition so that innovation and free competition can thrive.”įacebook has squashed or hindered what the company saw as potential threats, said New York Attorney General Letitia James during an online press conference.įacebook used “vast amounts of money” to acquire companies that could potentially threaten its dominance, particularly Instagram and WhatsApp, she said. “Facebook’s actions to entrench and maintain its monopoly deny consumers the benefits of competition. “Personal social networking is central to the lives of millions of Americans,” Ian Conner, the director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition, said in a statement. Unlike the Google case, the Facebook complaints seek a court order breaking up the company.įacebook shares fell 1.9% to close at $277.92 after falling more than 4% earlier.

since the Justice Department sued Microsoft Corp. Together, the Google and Facebook actions mark the most significant monopoly cases filed in the U.S. They follow the Justice Department’s October lawsuit against Alphabet Inc.’s Google. The cases represent the biggest regulatory attack against Facebook in the company’s history. The lawsuits seek court orders unwinding Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp, according to copies of the complaints provided by the states and the FTC. The Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general led by New York said they filed antitrust complaints against Facebook Wednesday, alleging the company stifled competition from rivals in order to protect its monopoly in social media. antitrust officials and a coalition of states that want to break up the company by unwinding its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp, deals the government says were part of a campaign to illegally crush competition.

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