ABUSE OF DOMINANT POSITION IN THE SOCIAL NETWORK MARKET. THE FTC AGAIN AGAINST FACEBOOK

On August 19, 2021, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a new complaint [1] against Facebook in the Columbia District Court for violating antitrust law by abusing its market dominance. of social networks and hinder competition by acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp. This is the second complaint filed by the US competition authority against Facebook in the past 9 months. Already on December 8, 2020, the FTC had requested [2] the Court to require Facebook to sell the two platforms. The judge, however, had rejected [3]this request due to insufficient evidence, allowing the possibility to modify the content of the complaint by August 19, 2021. The new complaint traces the previous accusatory system, citing new data and evidence that would demonstrate Facebook’s monopoly in the social network market and the abuse of its dominant position with the aim or effect of eliminating potential competitors. These are the facts. Thanks largely to the control of two of the most widespread and profitable networks in the world [4] , Facebook has a monopoly on the personal social media market in the United States, which is protected by high barriers to entry such as, among others, strong effects of network [5]. With the emergence of smartphones and the mobile internet around 2010, Facebook had encountered several difficulties in transposing its model of “ social ads ” [6] onto mobile devices, thus recognizing that this transition represented a fundamental challenge. As a result, Facebook had devised a strategy to maintain its dominant position by acquiring emerging companies that could have posed a threat to its monopoly position. Facebook had initially tried to compete with Instagram by investing significant resources in developing its own appfor sharing multimedia contents (“Snap”). Due to the limited results found, however, Facebook had begun to fear not only the emergence of an independent Instagram, but also an Instagram that could have been bought by a different buyer [7] , focusing more and more on an acquisition perspective. rather than competition. On April 9, 2012, Facebook announced that it had reached an agreement to acquire Instagram for 1 billion dollars, thus neutralizing a dangerous competitor on the social network market.personal. After acquiring Instagram, Facebook had identified WhatsApp, which after achieving vast success in Asia and Europe was also becoming increasingly popular in the United States, as the most significant threat regarding the possibility that an app offering services of mobile messaging entered the social networking market by introducing new features or by launching an independent app . In an attempt to neutralize this new obstacle to its leadership in the social network market, in 2014 Facebook had decided to also acquire WhatsApp, limiting its services to mobile messaging as well as its visibility in the United States rather than allowing it to become a competing provider . The acquisitions, however, alone were unable to eliminate any possible competitive threats. As a result, Facebook had begun to engage in a series of anti-competitive behaviors designed to protect its leadership position by limiting the operating margins of players who could undermine its monopoly. More particularly, Facebook required developers looking to use its platform and access its application programming interfaces (Application programming interfaces , API) [8] more significant than accepting contractual restrictions that severely limited their activities such as, among others, a non-compete obligation as well as not assisting any competitors , whose violation involved the interruption of the possibility of using of bees. Facebook therefore had, according to the FTC complaint, knowingly limited the incentives of app developers by deterring them from developing competing features or supporting social networks.competitors. His aggressive behavior was intended to convey the message that any competition would entail enormous disadvantages for developers. According to the FTC, Facebook’s acquisition and control of Instagram and WhatsApp remains capable of neutralizing a significant threat to its monopoly in the social networking market , through tools other than competition based on merit. This conduct not only deprives users of the advantages that the existence of independent platforms would bring to competition, but also raises an additional barrier that discourages the entry of new competitors.in the reference market. In this way, Facebook has harmed and continues to harm competition by limiting and suppressing what it would otherwise have faced in providing personal social networks . Users, therefore, are both deprived of the competitive advantages of personal social networks [9] and damaged by the lack of sufficient competitive constraints on Facebook. Facebook now has until October 4, 2021 to respond to the new FTC complaint which, if successful, could not only give rise to an epochal turning point in the social network market , but also rewrite an increasingly central chapter of the legislation and of US antitrust history.