FTC is investigating whether Meta's VR division violated the U.S. Antitrust Act

According to Bloomberg, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is working with at least three states to investigate Meta to determine whether the company's virtual reality division has anti-competitive behavior. Since last year, attorneys generals in New York, Tennessee, and North Carolina have been engaged in conversations with third-party VR developers who are concerned about Meta's business practices.

Of course, this is just one of several surveys conducted to address Meta's dominance in the relatively small but growing VR market.

The report cites the well-known controversy surrounding Meta (formerly Facebook) and its VR division (formerly Oculus).

Regulators are said to have asked developers whether the Oculus App Store treats third-party apps that overlap with their product features differently and questioned the strategy of the $299 Quest headset.

The FTC did not comment on the Bloomberg report, but the agency has begun investigating the company behind Supernatural, a VR fitness app acquired by Meta.

In addition, at the end of 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice also opened an investigation into similar allegations. Around the same time, German regulators also publicly announced an investigation.

However, as of now, VR has received relatively low attention compared to other divisions of Meta. The FTC, for example, is filing an antitrust lawsuit over its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp.

After a setback last year, a judge restarted the lawsuit earlier this week. It is expected that as Meta begins to increase its investment and in-depth investment in the VR metaverse, the field will also face more and more legal scrutiny.