Commission targets Facebook and subsidiaries

The Competition Commission has referred social media giant Meta Platforms Inc (previously known as Facebook Inc), and its subsidiaries, WhatsApp Inc and Facebook SA, to the Competition Tribunal for prosecution. A TimesLIVE report notes that the company is accused of abuse of dominance. In a statement last week, the commission alleged that Facebook in 2020 ‘expressed an ongoing intention’ to remove GovChat and #LetsTalk – a technology start-up that connects government and citizens – from the WhatsApp Business Application Programming Interface. It claims they violated the contractual terms of use. However, the commission argued that this was in contravention of the Competition Act, which prohibits a dominant firm from abusing its dominance by engaging in exclusionary conduct geared at preventing competitors or potential competitors from entering into, participating, and expanding in a market. It has asked the tribunal to impose a maximum penalty against Meta Platforms, WhatsApp and Facebook SA– an amount equal to 10% of their collective turnover. In addition, the commission has requested the tribunal to interdict Facebook from offboarding GovChat from the WhatsApp Business API.

Launched in 2018, GovChat allows citizens to report potholes and other service delivery issues with national, provincial, and local authorities. It also sends information about Covid-19 system tracking, testing and vaccination, as well as providing online applications for social relief and distress grants. Fin24 reports that the commission said hundreds of thousands of messages are sent on via the app every day. GovChat is dependent on its continued access to the WhatsApp Business API, the commission found.