A bipartisan coalition of state attorneys general on Wednesday filed an antitrust lawsuit against Facebook that accuses the tech giant of acquiring smaller companies to curb competition.
More pointedly, the lawsuit seeks to force Facebook to divest from Instagram and WhatsApp, two of its highest-profile acquisitions over the last decade.
"We want to see Facebook stop abusing its market power to prejudice consumers, competitors, and also third-party app and software developers," Connecticut Attorney General William Tong told Cheddar. "We want to see Facebook stop its practice of either buy-or-bury its competition and trying to crush anybody who threatens Facebook."
Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has pushed back against this characterization of its acquisitions, saying those companies would not have flourished without being purchased.
Tong said this is irrelevant to what he sees as the anti-competitive intent behind the acquisitions.
"The bottom line is that we believe that Facebook's strategy is to buy or bury," he said. "As Mark Zuckerberg said, he wants to create a competitive moat around Facebook, and he used that imagery himself, which means he wants Facebook to be impervious from competition."
This strategy of buying other companies to clear the market of competitors becomes more of a problem, and indeed possibly illegal, when a company has monopoly power, which Tong and the other attorneys general argue Facebook has over the social media market.
"You could make an argument that you have some other choices," he said. "The fact is is that Facebook has a monopoly, and it is in a unique position to limit consumer choice."
For the consumers, he added, this has meant a lack of choice and a lack of effective safeguards for personal data.
One demand embedded in the lawsuit is that Facebook should be legally forced to notify the public when it's making an acquisition worth more than $10 million.
"They should let us know, so that we have the opportunity to analyze that potential acquisition and take action if we think it's necessary in the public interest and in the interests of our states, and potentially to stop Facebook from making that acquisition," Tong said.
The tech giant now faces multiple legal challenges. On Wednesday, the Federal Trade Commission also filed a lawsuit against the company alleging anticompetitive conduct.
"Facebook’s actions to entrench and maintain its monopoly deny consumers the benefits of competition," said Ian Conner, director of the agency's Bureau of Competition, in a statement. "Our aim is to roll back Facebook’s anticompetitive conduct and restore competition so that innovation and free competition can thrive."
Nvidia on Wednesday became the first public company to reach a market capitalization of $5 trillion. The ravenous appetite for the Silicon Valley company’s chips is the main reason that the company’s stock price has increased so rapidly since early 2023.
Chris Williamson, Chief Business Economist at S&P Global, breaks down September’s CPI print and inflation trends, explaining what it means for markets.
A big-screen adaptation of the anime “Chainsaw Man” has topped the North American box office, beating a Springsteen biopic and “Black Phone 2.” The movie earned $17.25 million in the U.S. and Canada this weekend. “Black Phone 2” fell to second place with $13 million. Two new releases, the rom-com “Regretting You” and “Springsteen — Deliver Me From Nowhere,” earned $12.85 million and $9.1 million, respectively. “Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc” is based on the manga series about a demon hunter. It's another win for Sony-owned Crunchyroll, which also released a “Demon Slayer” film last month that debuted to a record $70 million.
The Federal Aviation Administration says flights departing for Los Angeles International Airport were halted briefly due to a staffing shortage at a Southern California air traffic facility. The FAA issued a temporary ground stop at one of the world’s busiest airports on Sunday morning soon after U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy predicted that travelers would see more flights delayed as the nation’s air traffic controllers work without pay during the federal government shutdown. The hold on planes taking off for LAX lasted an hour and 45 minutes and didn't appear to cause continued problems. The FAA said staffing shortages also delayed planes headed to Washington, Chicago and Newark, New Jersey on Sunday.
Boeing workers at three Midwest plants where military aircraft and weapons are developed have voted to reject the company’s latest contract offer and to continue a strike that started almost three months ago. The strike by about 3,200 machinists at the plants in the Missouri cities of St. Louis and St. Charles, and in Mascoutah, Illinois, is smaller in scale than a walkout last year by 33,000 Boeing workers who assemble commercial jetliners. The president of the International Association of Machinists says Sunday's outcome shows Boeing hasn't adequately addressed wages and retirement benefits. Boeing says Sunday's vote was close with 51% of union members opposing the revised offer.
The stunning indictment that led to the arrest of more than 30 people — including Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and other NBA figures — has drawn new scrutiny of the booming business of sports betting in the U.S. The multibillion-dollar industry has made it easy for sports fans — and even some players — to wager on everything from the outcome of games to that of a single play with just a few taps of a cellphone. But regulating the rapidly-growing industry has proven to be a challenge. Professional sports leagues’ own role in promoting gambling has also raised eyebrows.
