The VR division Oculus, which belongs to the Meta Group (Facebook), is being investigated by the US Trade Commission (FTC) for possible antitrust violations. Third-party providers who develop apps for the company’s virtual platform were interviewed as part of the investigation. The authorities care loudly Bloomberg for programs that are in direct competition with Meta’s own offerings, and related antitrust issues.
In addition, the FTC was also interested in the pricing of the VR headsets distributed by Meta. The company offers the Oculus Quest 2 VR headset for 299 US dollars – and is therefore significantly cheaper than, for example, the HTC Vice Flow, which is offered by the manufacturer in Germany for 549 euros. The Oculus Quest 2 is currently not available in Germany. The Federal Cartel Office has decided to prohibit the merging of user data – the Quest 2 must be connected to a Facebook account.
Developer allegations
The investigation by the FTC and several states – including New York, Tennessee and North Carolina – turned to those affected last year to examine Meta’s possible market power. Developers complained in advance about Meta, which, according to the report, exploits its market power and slows down competing services and games.
The provider of an Oculus fitness tracking app, for example, complained that a software update was blocking important functions for its program – later Meta itself published Oculus Move with similar functions. Another developer made it possible to stream PC games to the VR headset with their app – Meta would have threatened to remove the app if the feature was not removed. Oculus Link therefore started a short time later with similar functions.
Metaverse in Danger
Mark Zuckerberg’s company simply copies the most promising ideas and makes it difficult for some apps on the platform to function properly, according to the allegations in Bloomberg’s Report. The investigations could therefore also become a problem for Zuckerberg’s metaverse plans.
For the Metaverse, the company is investing $50 million in research and program partners and in the areas of VR and AR (augmented reality). The Facebook group sees the Metaversum as the platform of the future and wants to create 10,000 new, highly qualified jobs in the European Union over the next five years.
Why the Metaverse sucks (at least the way Facebook wants to build it) | c’t 3003
Pressure on the company is increasing
In addition to plans for the Metaverse, Mark Zuckerberg has to deal with an antitrust lawsuit. After a previously dismissed competition lawsuit, a US judge allowed the amended lawsuit at the second attempt three days ago. Shortly thereafter, 48 prosecutors from different US states also appealed – their lawsuit with identical concerns was also dismissed last year. The FTC is suing Meta over the purchase of photo and video sharing platform Instagram and messenger WhatsApp.
All of this is overshadowed by Frances Haugen’s recent allegations. For example, the former Facebook product manager revealed that it was known internally and even researched that Instagram harms children and young people. Facebook denied this publicly. At a hearing before the US Parliament, she declared that Facebook was not compatible with democracy.
(bme)