Reuters: Facebook lawsuits don’t show much consumer harm, but must they?

December 10, 2020 Media

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The lawsuits filed against Facebook allege the company’s pattern of buying up competitors has turned it into a monopoly, but several experts said the complaints fell short on explaining how the social media platform’s actions have hurt consumers.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission and nearly every U.S. state filed lawsuits against the social media company on Wednesday – making Facebook the second big tech company to face a major legal challenge this year after the U.S. Justice Department sued Alphabet Inc’s Google in October.

Some antitrust experts have pushed back against the idea of seeking to prove harm to consumers and argued that new antitrust lawsuits must focus on a much broader definition of harm.

This idea has found increasing support in Washington. A House panel released a wide-ranging report on tech companies earlier this year in which it called for establishing a legal standard “designed to protect not just consumers, but also workers, entrepreneurs, independent businesses, open markets, a fair economy, and democratic ideals.”

Sarah Miller, executive director of the American Economic Liberties Project, a Washington-based group focused on monopolies, said it is illegal to foreclose competition or acquire rivals to maintain monopoly power.

“Poor content, more misinformation and disinformation, poor privacy protections … the lawsuits make a clear case about the harms caused by the lack of competition,” she said.