Watchdog Concerned About Taxpayer and Consumer Ramifications of Antitrust Investigations

For Immediate Release
December 9, 2020
Contact: Grace Morgan
(202-855-4380)

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) is deeply concerned about the news that antitrust investigators at the state and federal level are planning to file a lawsuit against Facebook. If allowed to go forward, this lawsuit will serve as a deterrent to innovative business practices and technological developments in the future.

In response to the news, TPA Vice President of Policy Patrick Hedger offered the following statement:

“Once again, regulators across the nation have shown a fundamental misunderstanding of the purpose of antitrust. Instead of showing actual harm to consumers,  federal government officials and state attorneys general assert Facebook’s violation was to go after its competitors, i.e. compete. Any business that endeavors to be successful can – and should – seek to grow and take market share away from its competitors.

“The purpose of antitrust is not to protect competitors from competition – even aggressive competition. It is to protect consumers. Going after companies like Facebook will prevent it from taking innovative steps to deliver better, more effective services for its customers. This lawsuit, on the other hand, is a waste of taxpayer money and is sadly the latest of the recent trend of government officials targeting private companies to settle political grudges. This is a dangerous precedent to set and we urge officials at all levels to reconsider.  TPA will be filing FOIA requests to determine how much taxpayer money was spent on these frivolous lawsuits.”

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