US MAY SLAP ANTITRUST RAPS VS FACEBOOK NEXT MONTH

Facebook, Inc. may face US anti-trust charges as soon as November, the Washington Post reported on Friday, citing four people familiar with the matter, Kanishka Singh reported for Reuters.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) met privately to discuss a probe while state attorneys general under the leadership of New York’s Letitia James have been scrutinizing the company for potential threats to competition, the newspaper reported. The timeline could still change, the newspaper said, adding that state attorneys general are in the late stages of preparing their complaint. Facebook, the FTC and the office of the New York Attorney General were not immediately available for comment.

Facebook said in August that Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg was interviewed at an FTC investigative hearing as part of the government’s antitrust probe into the company.

The company faced similar probes by the Justice Department and by state attorneys general, and has said previously the investigations were looking at prior acquisitions and business practices involving “social networking or social media services, digital advertising, and/or mobile or online applications.” In July 2019, Facebook agreed to pay a record-breaking $5 billion fine to resolve a separate FTC probe into the company’s privacy practices.