Recently on Thursday, the Biden administration alleged Meta Platforms Inc of attempting to purchase its way to dominance in the metaverse, kicking off a high-end trial to aim to stop Meta from purchasing Within Inc.
In July, the FTC filed a suit to prevent the deal. It said that Facebook's parent's acquisition of Within would "tend to create a monopoly" in the market with regard to virtual reality (VR) fitness apps.
It urged the judge to order a preliminary injunction. This preliminary injunction would stop the proposed transaction.
Abby Dennis, the FTC lawyer, said in an opening statement that the Within acquisition was nothing but a part of Meta's bid to obtain fresh and more diverse virtual reality users, which would include customers of Supernatural, Within's famous subscription-based virtual reality workout app.
Dennis further added that this would add to Meta's already existing virtual reality users.
Pointing to a plan from the beginning of 2021, Dennis further stated that "Meta could have chosen to use all its vast resources and capabilities to build its own dedicated VR fitness app, and it was planning on doing that before it acquired Within,"
Operation Twinkie, the plan, encompassed expanding a rhythm game app known as Beat Saber. This app was acquired by the company in the year 2018 into the fitness space through a proposed partnership with Peloton.
An email from Mark Zuckerberg was also cited which said that he was "bullish" on fitness, further calling the proposed partnership with Peloton "awesome."
Meta and Within argued that the FTC did not do a good job while defining the relevant market. They said that the companies compete with a wide array of fitness content, and not only with VR-related fitness apps.
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