AG Mark Herring Investigating Facebook for Potential Antitrust Violations

“Big tech and social media companies like Facebook must comply with antitrust laws that promote competition and choice, and consumer protection laws that guard the privacy and personal data of users,” said Attorney General Herring. “Given Facebook’s nearly unprecedented influence in so many sectors of the economy and political process, this bipartisan coalition of attorneys general is committed to ensuring that Facebook is complying with the law and meeting its obligations.”

As part of his efforts to prioritize antitrust enforcement, Attorney General Herring serves on the Antitrust Committee of the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) and his Antitrust Unit Manager also serves as the Chair of the NAAG Antitrust Taskforce. He recently announced that he is also investigating Google’s business practices to examine compliance with state and federal antitrust laws. Additionally, he filed suit to block a proposed merger of T-Mobile and Sprint because of its potential to reduce choice, eliminate competition, and raise prices on mobile phone service.

Attorney General Herring has also filed two wide-ranging lawsuits against generic drug manufacturers for alleged antitrust violations that raised the cost of prescription drugs, and sued the maker of Suboxone, an opioid treatment medication, for illegally keeping monopoly profits.

In 2015, Attorney General Herring challenged a proposed merger of Sysco and US Foods that would have raised food prices for Virginians, and in 2017 he successfully blocked the anticompetitive proposed mergers of Aetna and Humana, as well as Cigna and Anthem, a proposed merger in which the Richmond, Virginia market was identified as the most negatively impacted market in the entire country.