Overzealous FTC Isn't Good for Consumers, Startups

Last month, Facebook’s parent Meta Platforms asked an American judge to dismiss the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)’s lawsuit attempting to block Meta’s proposed acquisition of virtual content producer Within Unlimited- maker of the Supernatural virtual reality fitness app. The lawsuit makes the tenuous, speculative claim that since VR platform Meta already owns many VR apps, including movement-based ones like Beat Saber that compete for users with Supernatural, a “monopoly” will “tend to be created” and competition and consumers will be worse-off if the deal proceeds. Never mind that Supernatural faces competition from more similar squarely fitness-focused VR apps that Meta doesn’t own, like Liteboxer and FitXR, as well as non-VR fitness apps like those offered by Apple and Peloton.