Antitrust: Meta’s VR division in the sights of the FTC

Meta awash in antitrust investigations. Europe, United States, Australia, everyone now seems to have something to say about Meta’s business model and practices. A few days ago, the FTC was legally authorized to pursue its complaint concerning the acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp, and it was learned yesterday that the British regulator had just opened an antitrust investigation targeting Meta. Today it is again the turn of the mighty FTC (Federal Trade Commission) to take action, supported by several American states (New York, Tennessee, North Carolina in particular).

According to Bloomberg, the VR division of Meta (or the future of Meta in a way) would be accused by several studios or third-party developers of not respecting the game of competition. Meta would “steal” the good ideas of certain developers and then integrate them into Meta’s operating system, making the original apps de facto completely optional (or even prohibiting these apps/functions).

Thus, Guy Godin, the developer of the very popular Virtual Desktop (virtualization of the PC station under the Meta Quest headset) had developed a function allowing PC games to be “streamed” to the Meta Quest. Meta then forced Guy Godin to withdraw this function by threatening to withdraw Virtual Desktop from the Oculus Store, before offering a similar service under the name of Oculus Link.

At this point, the FTC has yet to launch an official investigation, let alone antitrust charges, against Meta’s VR division, but the case is well and truly on track…