Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
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- Meta’s VR division is under investigation by the Federal Trade Commission, Bloomberg reports.
- Sources told Bloomberg the FTC has been speaking to third-party Oculus developers.
- Meta is already subject to intense antitrust scrutiny by the FTC.
Meta’s VR division is under investigation by the Federal Trade Commission and multiple US states, Bloomberg reported Friday.
The FTC and an undisclosed number of US states led by New York have been questioning third-party Oculus app developers over the last few months, sources with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg.
Sources told Bloomberg that investigators are looking into whether Oculus uses its market position to squash competition.
Meta did not immediately respond when contacted by Insider for comment on Bloomberg’s report. The FTC did not immediately respond when contacted out of hours.
Oculus is a crucial part in Meta’s ambitions to build out the metaverse. The word metaverse is a term borrowed from science fiction and refers to a future vision of the internet which people primarily access through immersive technologies like VR and AR.
Meta, formerly known as Facebook, rebranded itself in October to align more closely with CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s plans to push more into metaverse technology. Zuckerberg said Meta would consist of two main businesses: its traditional social media business, and Reality Labs, its VR and AR hardware division.
The head of Reality Labs, Andrew Bosworth, announced in October the Oculus brand would be dissolved, saying the company would in “early 2022” start renaming the Oculus Quest headset the Meta Quest, and would replace the Oculus App with the Meta App.
Meta is already the subject of antitrust scrutiny by the FTC. A judge ruled last week that an FTC antitrust lawsuit against Meta can proceed. The lawsuit aims to force Meta to sell off its subsidiaries Instagram and WhatsApp.
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