The United States Federal Trade Commission is Suing Meta
The United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is suing Meta, over their purchase of VR app maker Within.
Meta is the parent company of both Instagram and Facebook and is considered to be the biggest player in the VR space through its ownership of the formally named Oculus VR, with its ultimate goal being to leverage this technology, bringing in the new era of metaverse living.
But the FTC believes the corp has too much control and its acquisition of Within would push them further toward monopolizing the space. Meta would be one step closer to its ultimate goal of owning the entire ‘metaverse,’” the filing alleges.
Meta is being sued by the FTC in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, blocking its purchase of Within, the developer of popular VR fitness app Supernatural.
The deal was revealed last October by Meta, makers of the best-selling VR headset, the Quest 2. A deal reported by The Information to be worth over $400 million. The date of the deal has been moved to August 1 to oblige with the FTC pending ruling.
In today's announcement, the commission claims that Meta is attempting to manipulate innovation in VR fitness by absorbing smaller studios, instead of making its own rival application. The commission has voted 3-2 in favor of blocking the deal through litigation.
Meta takeover of Within would “[dampen] future innovation and competitive rivalry,” the agency wrote, in turn breaking antitrust laws. It was pointed out that Meta has already bought Beat Games, maker of the popular VR game Beat Saber, which is utilized by many as a fitness app. The FTC claims owning both these studios would affect innovation in the sector through there being no competition.
The FTC does not only focus on VR as later on in its filings it expands into the upcoming metaverse, which Meta is obviously building/banking on for its future success, since its announcement last fall of its name change from Facebook.
Meta repudiated the FTCs claims in a statement stating that they would “inject new investment into the VR fitness space,” rather than stifle it, while also claiming that Beat Saber and Supernatural were not similar experiences
“The FTC’s case is based on ideology and speculation, not evidence,” wrote Nikhil Shanbhag, Meta VP and associate general counsel, competition and regulatory. “The idea that this acquisition would lead to anticompetitive outcomes in a dynamic space with as much entry and growth as online and connected fitness is simply not credible.”
The metaverse is a future version of the internet and video games all in one, a fully realized 3D world where people can interact from all over the world, using either VR headsets or their computers to enter.
At the time though it is unclear if the metaverse-centric company has any interest in adding NFTs to its future digital world. Many in the crypto industry believe this integration is essential to future metaverses makeup, as the transferability of NFTs will allow users to take items from one metaverse to another.
Though many figureheads within the crypto industry have warned of one centralized corporation overseeing the metaverse, instead of the dream of a decentralized interoperable meta’s.