The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has sued Meta (formerly Facebook) to block its acquisition of virtual reality (VR) studio called “Within” on the ground that it would substantially lessen competition, or tend to create a monopoly, in the VR market.
Meta plans to buy Within for reportedly $400 million and grab a larger pie of the VR-dedicated fitness apps and the broader relevant market for VR fitness apps.
Within is known for its subscription VR workout app Supernatural.
“Meta could have chosen to try to compete. Instead, Meta decided it preferred to simply buy the startup,” the FTC lawsuit argued.
Under Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook has been famous for acquiring rival companies (like WhatsApp and Instagram) if it fails to compete with them.
According to the FTC, this “may yield multiple harmful outcomes, including less innovation, lower quality, higher prices, less incentive to attract and keep employees, and less consumer choice”.
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“Meta seeks to exploit the network-effects dynamic in VR. Indeed, Zuckerberg has made clear that his aspiration for the VR space is control of the entire ecosystem,” it added.
The proposed acquisition of Within would be one more step along that path toward dominance.
According to Within’s co-founder and CEO, “Fitness is the killer use case for VR.”
But instead of choosing to compete on the merits through its own VR dedicated fitness app, “Meta has resorted to proposing this unlawful acquisition,” said the FTC in its lawsuit.
“If Meta is able to proceed with this proposed acquisition of Within, the merger poses a reasonable likelihood of substantially lessening competition in the market for VR dedicated fitness apps, where Supernatural is,” it noted.
Meta just announced it is increasing the price of its Quest 2 VR headsets, starting in August.
The company said that from August, Meta Quest 2 will cost $399.99 and $499.99 for the 128GB and 256GB versions, respectively.
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