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."
The Rev. Al Sharpton is set to lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. Sharpton called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation." He and other Black leaders have called for boycotting American retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity and reducing discrimination in their ranks.
President Donald Trump's administration last month awarded a $1.2 billion contract to build and operate what's expected to become the nation’s largest immigration detention complex to a tiny Virginia firm with no experience running correction facilities.
Chipmaker Nvidia is poised to release a quarterly report that could provide a better sense of whether the stock market has been riding an overhyped artificial intelligence bubble or is being propelled by a technological boom that’s still gathering momentum.
Cracker Barrel said late Tuesday it’s returning to its old logo after critics — including President Donald Trump — protested the company’s plan to modernize.
Low-value imports are losing their duty-free status in the U.S. this week as part of President Donald Trump's agenda for making the nation less dependent on foreign goods. A widely used customs exemption for international shipments worth $800 or less is set to end starting on Friday. Trump already ended the “de minimis” rule for inexpensive items sent from China and Hong Kong, but having to pay import taxes on small parcels from everywhere else likely will be a big change for some small businesses and online shoppers. Purchases that previously entered the U.S. without needing to clear customs will be subject to the origin country’s tariff rate, which can range from 10% to 50%.
Southwest Airlines will soon require plus-size travelers to pay for an extra seat in advance if they can't fit within the armrests of one seat. This change is part of several updates the airline is making. The new rule starts on Jan. 27, the same day Southwest begins assigning seats. Currently, plus-size passengers can pay for an extra seat in advance and later get a refund, or request a free extra seat at the airport. Under the new policy, refunds are still possible but not guaranteed. Southwest said in a statement it is updating policies to prepare for assigned seating next year.
Cracker Barrel is sticking with its new logo. For now. But the chain is also apologizing to fans who were angered when the change was announced last week.
Elon Musk on Monday targeted Apple and OpenAI in an antitrust lawsuit alleging that the iPhone maker and the ChatGPT maker are teaming up to thwart competition in artificial intelligence.
