Facebook SA and WhatsApp abused its dominance, finds Competition Commission
The Competition Commission has on announced that social media giant, Meta Platforms Inc and its subsidiaries WhatsApp and Facebook South Africa have been referred to the Competition Tribunal for prosecution for abuse of dominance.
This comes after government’s digital platform, GovChat and #LetsTalk filed a complaint with the Commission against Facebook, alleging that the social media giant threatened to terminate their access to the WhatsApp Business Application Programming Interface.
Spokesperson for the Commission Sipho Ngwema says Facebook planned to offboard GovChat and #LetsTalk, a technology start-up that connects government and citizens.
“In the second instance, Facebook also imposed and/or selectively enforced exclusionary terms and conditions regulating access to the WhatsApp Business API, mainly restrictions on the use of data.”
ALSO READ: Non-pharmaceutical measures can be enforced without state of disaster – legal expert
The WhatsApp Business API enables medium and large businesses (and government) to message on a large scale, make use of advanced automation, integrations with existing eCommerce, building chatbots and tracking metrics.
Ngwema says this is in contravention of the Competition Act.
“The Act 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.”
GovChat, which was launched in 2018, enables the public to engage with all spheres of government – national, provincial, and local – to report a wide variety of issues such as pothole location and other service delivery requirements.
Ngwema adds that the Commission has requested the maximum penalty against the companies.
“The Commission has asked the Tribunal to impose a maximum penalty against Meta Platforms, WhatsApp and Facebook South Africa which is 10% of their collective turnover.
“In addition, the Commission has requested the Tribunal to interdict Facebook from off-boarding GovChat from the WhatsApp Business API and to declare void certain exclusionary terms and conditions for access to the WhatsApp Business API.”
