Antitrust Policy and Facebook’s Acquisition of Small Rivals

This paper examines how current antitrust law can be better interpreted to address Facebook’s alleged unfair monopoly. It begins with an overview of applicable antitrust laws, then investigates how Section 2 of the Sherman Act can better be utilized. The paper delves into each component of the rule that is required to find a violation, compares the indirect and direct methods of proving monopoly power, proposes various methods of direct proof, and argues that agencies and courts should also include Facebook’s acquisitions of smaller rivals in their analyses of the firm’s anticompetitive conduct. The paper also briefly examines Section 7 of the Clayton Act and why the FTC may have relied on Section 2 of the Sherman Act instead. Ultimately, the paper finds that existing antitrust law is sufficient; however, agencies and courts should consider different ways of interpreting and applying them.