WASHINGTON - The U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s and states’ twin complaints against Facebook Inc come on the heels of a major lawsuit filed by the government against Alphabet’s Google in October and kicks off what is likely to be a long legal battle.
The FTC also alleged in its complaint that Facebook enticed small, new companies onto the platform in order to make Facebook more attractive to users, but only if they refrained from competing with Facebook itself or with Facebook Messenger.The Federal Trade Commission has broad leeway in requesting a remedy, and asked the judge to force Facebook to divest assets, potentially including Instagram and WhatsApp.
The company said the government “now wants a do-over with no regard for the impact that precedent would have on the broader business community or the people who choose our products every day.”While court hearings to determine if a merger should be stopped can be relatively quick, in this case, the run-up to a trial or trials and the proceedings themselves could last a year or more. A decision could come months after that, antitrust experts said.
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