By Diane Bartz and Nandita Bose
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Trade Commission filed an amended complaint against Facebook in federal court on Thursday, accusing it of breaking antitrust law and illegally maintaining monopoly power.
The agency had filed a lawsuit in December that accused Facebook of breaking antitrust law to keep smaller competitors at bay by snapping up rivals such as Instagram and WhatsApp.
Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said in June that the FTC’s original complaint failed to provide evidence that Facebook had monopoly power in the social-networking market.
In its new complaint, the agency once again asked the court to order Facebook to sell Instagram, which it bought in 2012 for $1 billion, and WhatsApp, which it bought in 2014 for $19 billion.
It also asked the court to require Facebook to get prior approval for future acquisitions and to cease all anticompetitive behavior.
“Despite causing significant customer dissatisfaction, Facebook has enjoyed enormous profits for an extended period of time, suggesting both that it has monopoly power and that its personal social networking rivals are not able to overcome entry barriers and challenge its dominance,” the amended complaint said.
(Reporting by Diane Bartz, Nandita Bose and David Shepardson, editing by Mark Porter, Chizu Nomiyama and Diane Craft)
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