“Our aim is to roll back Facebook’s anticompetitive conduct and restore competition so that innovation and free competition can thrive.”įacebook generated revenues of more than $70bn and profits above $18.5bn in just the last year, according to the FTC’s complaint, and regulators allege that anticompetitive actions taken by the company’s executives, including Mark Zuckberg, gave them a monopoly in the market.
“Facebook’s actions to entrench and maintain its monopoly deny consumers the benefits of competition,” Ian Conner, director of the FTC’s bureau of competition, said in a statement.
The FTC is seeking a permanent injunction in federal court that could force Facebook to sell off Instagram and WhatsApp. The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which collaborated with the attorneys general in a years-long investigation, launched its own suit alleging that Facebook engaged in a “systematic strategy” of anticompetitive conduct. Instead of competing on the merits, Facebook used its power to suppress competition so it could take advantage of users and make billions by converting personal data into a cash cow.” “Today, we are taking action to stand up for the millions of consumers and many small businesses that have been harmed by Facebook’s illegal behavior. “For nearly a decade, Facebook has used its dominance and monopoly power to crush smaller rivals and snuff out competition, all at the expense of everyday users,” said James in a statement. The suit accuses Facebook of abusing its market power to quash smaller competitors. One lawsuit brings together nearly every state in the US, a coalition led by New York’s attorney general, Letitia James. With the dissolution of the Standard Oil trust into 33 smaller companies, Rockefeller became the richest man in the world.The US government and a coalition of 48 states and districts have filed parallel lawsuits against Facebook in a major antitrust offensive that accused the social media behemoth of anticompetitive behavior and could ultimately force its breakup.Īt the heart of both antitrust actions, announced on Wednesday, is Facebook’s dominance of the social media landscape, and whether the company gobbled up potential competitors and blocked market access to others that could have eaten into its staggering market share. Rockefeller was a founder, chairman and major shareholder. "Trust-busting" critics accused Standard Oil of using aggressive pricing to destroy competitors and form a monopoly that threatened consumers. The Standard Oil trust streamlined production and logistics, lowered costs, and undercut competitors. Standard Oil dominated the oil products market initially through horizontal integration in the refining sector, then, in later years vertical integration the company was an innovator in the development of the business trust. Its controversial history as one of the world's first and largest multinational corporations ended in 1911, when the United States Supreme Court ruled that Standard was an illegal monopoly. Established in 1870 as a corporation in Ohio, it was the largest oil refiner in the world. Was an American oil producing, transporting, refining, and marketing company.