Facebook's VR Oculus business probed by U.S. states

[January 15, 2022]    By Diane Bartz and Elizabeth Culliford

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Multiple states have begun investigating potential violations in how Facebook, now known as Meta Platforms Inc, runs its virtual-reality Oculus business, according to three sources familiar with the matter.

A woman holds smartphone with Facebook logo in front of a displayed Facebook's new rebrand logo Meta in this illustration picture taken October 28, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

Two of the sources said the U.S. Federal Trade Commission was also involved in the antitrust investigation. Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

New York, North Carolina and Tennessee were among the states involved in the inquiry, one source said. A group of almost 50 states also asked an appeals court on Friday to reinstate their antitrust lawsuit, filed in December 2020, against Facebook.

The inquiries into Facebook's Oculus business are part of the larger probe, one of the sources said.

The offices of the New York, North Carolina and Tennessee attorneys general did not immediately respond to requests for comments.

The inquiry was first reported by Bloomberg News.

(Reporting by Diane Bartz in Washington and Elizabeth Culliford in New York; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

[© 2022 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.  Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.