A few weeks ago, we all wake up with the notice of the legal suit against Facebook from 12 states and the federal government of United States, for allegedly breakup the antitrust law, by acquiring the Apps of Instagram and WhatsApp. But why is a problem for the administrative wing of North America? 

Let’s begin saying that the antitrust law has almost by nature two different branches, one of them, aim to protect the user or consumer, and the other one has the object to protect the companies itself. By the first one, the costumer can choose the service or product that want from the variety that offers the market, and by the second, the companies can in effect compete in equal conditions with others; as you can conclude, this constitutes and essential core for the market. Please don’t forget that the government is the main one in charge of maintaining free competition.

In that order, the principal arguments of the lawsuit are that “Facebook deny the costumers the benefits of the competition”1, and that Facebook use its power in order to dominance the competence. These means, that Facebook impact no more no less that the two essential branches of the anticompetitive laws.

The result of the case is as a matter a fact, business of the entire world, the problem does not reduce to the United States, in a important part of the world we are at the mercy of this company, and what happens in the United States where Facebook literally is eating its competitors, what can we say in an emergency country like Colombia, where the few technology of this kind is barely could be development, and in consequence, the geeks of this industry can’t ever compete with this giant.

It’s time to reconsider where we are been conducted, and what is going to happen with the consumers and the developers of software around the world.

We hope that this is the beginning for new and better environment for the innovation in this field.

1 IAN CONNER. Director of the Bureau of Competition of FTC. Taken of the reportage of CNN business written by BRIAN FUG. “Facebook must be broken up, the US government says in a groundbreaking lawsuit”; December 10 of 2020.