DOJ, States to Sue Facebook for Monopoly Abuse

Facebook Inc. will soon be hit by federal and state antitrust lawsuits accusing the social media giant of abusing its dominance and thwarting competition, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Lawsuits are expected as soon as this week from the Republican-led Federal Trade Commission and a group of state attorneys general led by New York’s Letitia James, a Democrat, according to the people, who described the plans under condition of anonymity.

The complaints will mark the second time in less than two months that the U.S. and state officials have leveled monopoly charges against a U.S. technology giant. Combined with the Justice Department’s October complaint against Alphabet Inc.’s Google, the lawsuits mark the most significant monopoly cases filed in the U.S. in 20 years.

For Facebook, the lawsuits will represent the biggest regulatory attack in the company’s history, potentially imperiling its ownership of Instagram and WhatsApp. The cases culminate investigations into Facebook that began last year, part of a wave of antitrust scrutiny directed at U.S. tech firms that promises to carry over into the Biden administration.

Facebook became a prime target for President Donald Trump in the last two months of his administration. Last week, he threatened to veto the annual U.S. defense authorization bill unless Congress adds a rider to abolish the law that protects technology companies, including Facebook, from liability over most content posted by users. The demand followed months of attacks by Trump and other Republicans, who claim the technology platforms suppress conservative views.

In addition to the Facebook case, states are planning new lawsuits against Google in the coming weeks, according to two people familiar with the matter. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is targeting Google’s advertising business, while another group that includes Colorado, Iowa and New York has been investigating the company’s search monopoly, the subject of the Justice Department’s complaint.

It will be up to Biden’s Justice Department to carry the Google case forward, while the Facebook case will fall to whomever Biden picks as FTC chairman if Joe Simons, who was appointed by Trump, leaves the agency.

The cases reflect how public sentiment has turned on companies that have gone from scrappy startups to digital behemoths, said Rebecca Haw Allensworth, who teaches antitrust law at Vanderbilt University.

“We like the underdogs and the upstarts and competition, and when those companies were the underdogs and shaking things up they were a lot more popular,” she said. “Now they look like the big barons of industry that created the political will that led to the first antitrust laws.”

New York’s James said in an interview on Bloomberg TV Thursday that the states could combine their case with the FTC’s. The states’ investigation of Google, which initially included nearly every state, eventually fractured along partisan lines.

“I am confident that it will be a bipartisan matter as we move forward,” she said in response to a question about the states’ Facebook inquiry. “And in the event that we do file, we look forward to the possibility of consolidating with the FTC.”

No final decisions have been made and the filings could be delayed. The FTC declined to comment. James declined to discuss further details of the states’ Facebook probe.

The FTC case has focused in part on the company’s 2012 acquisition of Instagram and its 2014 purchase of WhatsApp -- and whether they were intended to choke off competition.

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