Interesting deal between FTC and Meta CEO Zuckerberg
29. August 2022Interesting deal between FTC and Meta CEO Zuckerberg
San Francisco, 8/29/2022
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has agreed to remove Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg from an antitrust case aimed at preventing Meta’s purchase of a virtual reality company. In exchange, Zuckerberg will agree not to personally acquire Within Unlimited and its VR fitness app Supernatural.
In exchange for being removed from the lawsuit, Zuckerberg must agree not to acquire Within Unlimited either as an individual or through an entity he controls.
The FTC filed its lawsuit last month to prevent Meta and Zuckerberg from acquiring Within. It argued that the deal stifled competition and was an attempt by Meta to buy a market position rather than „compete on the merits.“
It was the first major action against a tech giant under FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan, an antitrust watchdog who has promised to crack down on efforts by tech platforms to extend their dominance to other markets.
Meta first announced its plans to acquire Within in October 2021. The company had acquired VR hardware maker Oculus in 2014.
