- AG James Leads Bipartisan Coalition of 48 Attorneys General Charging Anticompetitive Conduct
- Facebook Thwarted Competition, Reduced Consumer Privacy for Profits
NEW YORK – New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit against Facebook Inc. today, alleging that the company has and continues to stifle competition to protect its monopoly power illegally. The lawsuit alleges that, over the last decade, the social networking giant illegally acquired competitors in a predatory manner and cut services to more minor threats — depriving users of the benefits of competition and reducing privacy protections and services along the way — all to boost its bottom line through increased advertising revenue. Attorney General James leads a bipartisan coalition of 48 nationwide attorneys in filing today’s lawsuit to stop Facebook’s anticompetitive conduct.
“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 Attorney General James. “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 behaviour. 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. Almost every state in this nation has joined this bipartisan lawsuit because Facebook’s efforts to dominate the market were as illegal as they were harmful. Today’s suit should send a clear message to Facebook and every other company that any efforts to stifle competition, reduce innovation, or cut privacy protections will be met with the full force of our offices.”
Since 2004, Facebook has operated as a personal social networking service that facilitates sharing content online without charging users a monetary fee but, instead, provides these services in exchange for a user’s time, attention, and personal data. Facebook then monetizes its business by selling advertising to firms that attach immense value to user engagement and highly targeted advertising that Facebook can deliver due to the vast trove of data it collects on users, their friends, and their interests.
To maintain its market dominance in social networking, Facebook employs various methods to impede competing services and — as Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and controlling shareholder Mark Zuckerberg has stated — to “build a competitive moat” around the company. The two most utilized strategies have been to acquire smaller rivals and potential rivals before they could threaten Facebook’s dominance and suffocate and squash third-party developers that Facebook invited to use its platform — allowing Facebook to maintain its monopoly over the social networking market and make billions from advertising. As one market participant noted, if an application (app) encroached on Facebook’s turf or didn’t consider selling, Zuckerberg would go into “destroy mode,” subjecting small businesses to the “wrath of Mark.”
Consumers Suffer – Reduced Privacy and Fewer Options
Facebook’s unlawful monopoly gives it broad discretion to set the terms for how its users’ private information is collected and used to further its business interests. When Facebook cuts off integration to third-party developers, users cannot quickly move their information to other social networking services, such as their friends’ lists. This decision forces users to stay put or start their online lives from scratch if they want to try an alternative.
Because Facebook users have nowhere else to go, the company can now decide how to curate content on the platform and use the personal information it collects to further its business interests, even if those choices conflict with the goods and preferences of Facebook users.
Additionally, while consumers initially turned to Facebook and other apps now owned by the company seeking privacy protection and control over their data — Facebook’s “secret sauce” — many of those protections are now gone.
Who Would Turn Down a “High Enough Price”?
The harm to consumers over the last decade comes directly from Facebook’s acquisition of smaller firms that pose competitive threats. Facebook employs unique data-gathering tools to monitor new apps to see what is gaining traction with users. That data helps Facebook select acquisition targets that pose the greatest threats to Facebook’s dominance. Once selected, Zuckerberg and Facebook offer the heads of these companies vast amounts of money — that significantly inflates the values of the apps — all in hopes of avoiding any competition for Facebook in the future.
When it came to startups, Zuckerberg has observed that if these companies were not inclined to sell, “they’d have to consider it” if Facebook offered a “high enough price.”
The elimination of competitive alternatives means users have no option to Facebook, fueling its unfettered growth without competition and further entrenching its position. Instagram and WhatsApp were the two most prominent examples of this successful strategy, which posed a unique and dire threat to Facebook’s monopoly.
#TotalDomination – Purchase of Instagram
Facebook and Zuckerberg quickly saw Instagram as a direct threat after the company launched. After initially trying to build its version of Instagram that gained no traction, Zuckerberg admitted in early 2012 that Facebook was “very behind” Instagram and that a better strategy would be “to consider paying a lot of money” for the photo-sharing app to “neutralize a potential competitor.”
A few months later, in April 2012, Facebook acquired Instagram for $1 billion, despite not having a single cent of revenue and valuing itself at only $500 million. Zuckerberg offered Instagram’s owners double the valuation that Instagram came up with, even though Zuckerberg previously described the initial $500 million value as “crazy.”
$100 Million Isn’t Cool. You Know What’s Cool?…$19 Billion – Purchase of WhatsApp
The mobile messaging app WhatsApp also posed a unique threat to Facebook’s growth, allowing users to send messages on their mobile devices one-to-one and to groups. While Facebook focused on several emerging mobile messaging services, WhatsApp was viewed as the “category leader”, with over 400 million active users worldwide in 2014, and the one that could potentially pose the most significant threat.
Facebook feared WhatsApp eroding its monopoly power, stating WhatsApp or similar products posed “the biggest competitive threat we face as a business.” Facebook was also concerned that WhatsApp could ultimately be bought by a competing behemoth that had previously shown interest in social networking — Google.
In February 2014, Facebook acquired WhatsApp for nearly $19 billion — wildly more than the extravagant price Zuckerberg had recommended paying a few months earlier and the $100 million another competitor offered to buy the company two years earlier.
Here Today, Gone Tomorrow – Cutting Competitors Off from Facebook Overnight
As laid out in today’s complaint, Facebook targets competitors with a ‘buy or bury’ approach: if they refuse to be bought out, Facebook tries to squeeze every bit of oxygen out of the room for these companies. To facilitate this goal, Facebook has used an “open first–closed later” strategy to stop or deter competitive threats from competing at the inception.
Facebook opened its platform to apps created by third-party developers to increase functionality on the site and, subsequently, increase the number of users on Facebook. Facebook also drove traffic to third-party sites by making it easier for users to sign in so that Facebook could capture valuable data about its users’ off-Facebook activity and enhance its ability to target advertising.
Not only did Facebook benefit monetarily through the third-party developers’ revenue, but Facebook’s services were expanded, as Facebook could not create and develop all the useful social features offered through third-party developers.
After years of promoting open access to its platform, in 2011, Facebook began to rescind and block access to the site to apps that Facebook viewed as actual or potential competitive threats. Facebook understands that an abrupt termination of established access to the site can be devastating to an app — especially one still relatively new to the market. An app that suddenly loses access to Facebook is hurt not only because its users can no longer bring their friend lists to the new app but also because a sudden loss of functionality — which creates broken or buggy features — suggests to users that an app is unstable. In the past, some of these companies experienced almost overnight drop-off in user engagement and downloads, and their growth stalled.
Facebook’s response to competitors also warns other apps that if they encroach on Facebook’s territory, Facebook will end their access to crucial integrations. Additionally, Facebook’s actions deter venture capitalists from investing in companies that Facebook might see as competitors in the future.
Ads Aren’t Cool…But They Are Profitable
Due to Facebook’s expansive user base and the vast trove of data it collects from its users and users’ connections, Facebook can sell highly targeted advertising that firms greatly value.
The volume, velocity, and variety of Facebook’s user data give it an unprecedented, virtually 360-degree view of users and their contacts, interests, preferences, and activities. The more users Facebook can acquire and convince to spend additional time on its platforms, the more data Facebook can accumulate by surveilling the activities of its users and thereby increasing its revenues through advertising — reaping the company billions every month.
Specific Violations
Facebook is specifically charged with violating Section 2 of the Sherman Act and multiple violations of Section 7 of the Clayton Act.
Remedies
Attorney General James and the coalition asked the court to halt Facebook’s illegal, anticompetitive conduct and block the company from continuing this behaviour. Additionally, the team asks the court to restrain Facebook from making further acquisitions valued at or more than $10 million without advance notice to the state of New York and other plaintiff states. Finally, the court is asked to provide any additional relief it determines is appropriate, including the divestiture or restructuring of illegally acquired companies or current Facebook assets or business lines.
The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Separately, but in coordination with the coalition led by Attorney General James, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a complaint against Facebook in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia today. Attorney General James wishes to thank the FTC for its close working relationship and collaboration during this investigation.
Attorney General James leads this lawsuit with an executive committee comprised of the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, and the District of Columbia. The executive committee is joined by the attorneys general of Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, and the territory of Guam.
The Facebook investigation is being handled by Assistant Attorneys General Johanna Skrzypczyk, Hanna Baek, and Nathaniel Kosslyn, Legal Assistant Shirly Huang, and Internet and Technology Analyst Joe Graham — all of the Bureau of Internet and Technology, under the supervision of Bureau Chief Kim Berger; Assistant Attorneys General Zach Biesanz, Beatriz Marques, James Yoon, and Amber Wessels-Yen, and Legal Assistant Arlene Leventhal — all of the Antitrust Bureau, under the supervision of Bureau Chief Elinor Hoffmann; Chief Economist Paola Valenti; and Project Attorney Benjamin Cole. The Bureau of Internet and Technology and the Antitrust Bureau are part of the Division for Economic Justice, which Chief Deputy Attorney General Chris D’Angelo and First Deputy Attorney General Jennifer Levy oversee.
Source: Press Release
December 9, 2020
Attorney General’s Press Office/212-416-8060
nyag.pressoffice@ag.ny.gov
Ananova 