Facebook on Wednesday 24th July confirmed that the Federal Trade Commission has opened an antitrust investigation into the social media giant. While reporting its second quarter financial results, Facebook said the Federal Trade Commission informed it of the investigation in June.
The Federal Trade Commission is now officially investigating Facebook for potential violations of US antitrust law.
“The online technology industry and our company have received increased regulatory scrutiny in the past quarter. In June 2019, we were informed by the FTC that it had opened an antitrust investigation of our company,” reads the company’s earnings release. “In addition, in July 2019, the Department of Justice announced that it will begin an antitrust review of market-leading online platforms.”
Last month, the FTC was granted authority to oversee antitrust probes into both Facebook and Amazon, while the US Department of Justice is handling Google. Now, it appears the FTC is actively working on bringing a case against the social network, as Facebook’s disclosure here is the first official confirmation of a formal antitrust investigation kicking off. The company says it was informed of the investigation last month, so we may hear more about antitrust cases against Amazon and Google when those two companies report earnings later this month.
“We had a strong quarter and our business and community continue to grow,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement. “We are investing in building stronger privacy protections for everyone and on delivering new experiences for the people who use our services.”
Earlier on Wednesday, the FTC handed down a $5 billion fine against Facebook over its privacy dealings, bringing an end to a year-long probe into whether the company violated a prior agreement after the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
The Department of Justice said Wednesday that it was broadly looking into potential antitrust concerns related to large tech companies.
