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SOUTH AFRICA: META INC. ACCUSED OF VIOLATING COMPETITION ACT

SOUTH AFRICA: META INC. ACCUSED OF VIOLATING COMPETITION ACT
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Oliver Meth

Social media giant Facebook is in hot water with South African authorities. The South African Competition Commission wants the country’s Competition Tribunal to prosecute Meta Platforms Inc, previously known as Facebook Inc for abuse of dominance.

The Commission made the findings after GovChat and, #LetsTalk filed a complaint against Facebook, WhatsApp, and Facebook South Africa in 2020.

The Commission is accusing Facebook of offboarding GovChat and #LetsTalk from the WhatsApp Business Application Programming Interface.

The WhatsApp Business API allows businesses and the government to message at scale, among other things. It’s also saying Facebook selectively enforced exclusionary terms and conditions regulating access to the WhatsApp Business API.

/Courtesy/

The Commission says this is in contravention of the South African Competition Act.

It wants the companies to cough out 10 percent of their collective turnover. The Commission also wants the Tribunal to interdict Facebook from off-boarding GovChat from the WhatsApp Business API.

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Oliver Meth