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　　October 8th, according to reports, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), one of the US antitrust agencies, sued the social networking giant Meta to prevent the company from acquiring virtual reality software maker "Within Unlimited". ", which is also the agency's first "pre-emptive strike" against Meta's external acquisition. However, a few days ago, the FTC amended the complaint, which is very rare in the agency's history.

　　On July 27, the FTC filed the above-mentioned antitrust complaint with the court, but on Friday, the FTC asked the presiding judge Edward Davila to amend some of the allegations against Meta, mainly related to the acquisition of virtual reality fitness software. Anti-competitive effects of the market.

　　Meta said the FTC's allegations are based solely on subjective imagination, not objective evidence. The company said the FTC's newly amended complaint removes a statement that Meta's most popular virtual reality game "Beat Saber" is a direct competitor to acquired Within's fitness software "Supernatural."

　　Meta spokesman Stephen Peters said in a statement that the FTC previously referred to Meta and Supernatural as direct competitors in the complaint, but now says they are not. In any case, Meta still believes that the FTC's prosecution is a false accusation, lacking the support of objective facts and legal provisions.

　　Meta denies the FTC's allegations about the merger, arguing that the FTC is conducting selective antitrust enforcement.

　　Within is developing apps for virtual reality devices, including the aforementioned fitness product, Supernatural. In the original complaint, the FTC alleges that Meta's acquisition of Within would create a monopoly in a particular market.

　　In Beat Saber, a game owned by Meta, users can beat targets to the rhythm of the music. In 2019, Meta acquired the game software maker "Beat Games" and obtained this product. Beat Saber is the most profitable game in the virtual reality software store for Meta's Oculus Quest devices, with gross revenue exceeding $100 million as of October 2021.

　　Within's Supernatural is a membership-based fitness software that allows users of virtual reality devices to exercise or meditate in an immersive music environment.

　　The FTC's complaint initially stated that the two softwares competed directly to rob users. But in the new complaint, Beat Saber is called "interval fitness software," and the FTC also said that prior to the acquisition, Meta was likely preparing to develop a standalone virtual reality fitness software to compete with Supernatural.

　　After a Biden administration, Lena Khan served as FTC chair. The antitrust lawsuit against the Meta acquisition is seen as a signal by the outside world that the FTC will strengthen antitrust supervision of the technology industry. Over the past few years, the FTC has faced criticism from the U.S. Congress and from all walks of life that the FTC has failed to oversee antitrust and failed to prevent U.S. tech giants from acquiring a large number of startups that may become their competitors in the future.

　　Prior to this, Meta had a large number of acquisitions, the vast majority of which were to strengthen its product line in the field of virtual reality and augmented reality. According to CEO Zuckerberg's vision, the Metaverse will become a mainstream social platform in the future, where people can shop, work, and meet with friends in the virtual world of the Metaverse.

　　Before the Within lawsuit, the FTC had already launched another antitrust lawsuit against Meta's historical acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp. Recently, a Republican member of the U.S. Congress challenged two FTC lawsuits, arguing that the two lawsuits may be contradictory in the use of legal provisions.

　　At a Sept. 20 hearing, U.S. Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah told FTC No. 1 Khan that the FTC's two lawsuits against Meta are contradictory, which could affect the The FTC’s ability to regulate U.S. tech platforms. At the time, Khan said a lawsuit against the Within merger was ongoing, so he did not directly respond to Lee's questions.

　　In this lawsuit, the FTC's goal is to ask the court to issue an injunction preventing Meta from acquiring Witin. Separately, an administrative tribunal within the FTC also brought a largely similar independent lawsuit against Meta.

　　In the San Jose, Calif., court, Judge Davila has scheduled a two-week court hearing in December, and he plans to rule by the end of the year (which is when Meta was supposed to close the deal). The FTC's internal court will begin hearing the case in January.

　　Stephen Calkins, an antitrust professor at Wayne State University Law School in the United States, said the FTC's rewrite of the complaint is unusual, because in past merger and acquisition lawsuits, regulators have often hoped to advance the lawsuit as soon as possible.

　　In acquisition lawsuits, lawsuits move quickly and amendments to the pleadings are rare, Calkins said. And it's even more unusual to amend it again two months after filing the complaint. It is reported that during the Clinton administration in the United States, Calkins served as an FTC lawyer.

　　In 2009, the FTC filed a lawsuit against the acquisition of Whole Foods Market and its peer "Wild Oats Markets". The FTC also amended the complaint in the case. However, Calkins said that, unlike the Meta lawsuit, in this lawsuit, the FTC first lost the case in federal court, and then amended the complaint in the internal court to reduce the content of the allegations.

　　The FTC said that in response to the revision of the complaint, the top FTC vote was 4:0 (among the 5 members, a Republican FTC committee whose term will soon end did not vote). Separately, Republican Commissioner Christine Wilson, who previously voted against the lawsuit over the Within deal, favors amending the lawsuit. Wilson said he still opposes the lawsuit in general.