Facebook’s investors were not fazed by the announcement of a $5 billion FTC fine after baking it into share price expectations, but Facebook’s admission that it was now under investigation by the FTC over antitrust issues was a surprise.
Facebook detailed in its Q2 earnings release that it has paid the record fine and agreed to certain privacy stipulations, but a short sentence in the release also detailed that the company’s FTC troubles may continue.
Facebook settles with FTC: $5 billion and new privacy guarantees
“The online technology industry and our company have received increased regulatory scrutiny in the past quarter,” the release read. “In June 2019, we were informed by the FTC that it had opened an antitrust investigation of our company. In addition, in July 2019, the Department of Justice announced that it will begin an antitrust review of market-leading online platforms.”
Just yesterday, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that its antitrust division had opened an investigation into the country’s big tech companies.
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We’ll have more details from the company’s earnings call starting shortly.
