New York AG Letitia James leads a coalition of 48 AGs in suing Facebook, alleging the company uses a “buy or bury” approach toward its competitors
AG James Leads Bipartisan Coalition of 48 Attorneys General Charging Anticompetitive Conduct — Facebook Thwarted Competition, Reduced Consumer Privacy for Profits
Context & Ripple Effects
This lawsuit is the endpoint of a 14-month arc: Letitia James opened a multi-state antitrust investigation into Facebook in September 2019, expanded it when 46 attorneys general joined the probe that October, and the filing was prefigured by a Reuters report a week earlier that more than 40 states were ready to sue. The complaint now converts that investigation into a formal antitrust case alleging a 'buy or bury' strategy and degraded consumer privacy.
The timing is the story's second half: the same day, the FTC filed its own coalition suit with 46 state AGs plus Guam and DC, targeting the Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions as tools to stifle competition. Facebook is now defending against two coordinated-but-separate fronts, one led by a state AG, one by the federal agency.
First-order effects
- Facebook faces two simultaneous antitrust suits — the states' 'buy or bury' case and the FTC's challenge to the Instagram and WhatsApp deals — with the FTC complaint explicitly putting past acquisitions on the table for structural relief.
- The 48-state coalition gives the case bipartisan breadth and multi-jurisdiction durability, meaning Facebook cannot settle away one plaintiff and end the exposure.
Second-order effects
- The states' privacy framing — that Facebook reduced consumer privacy for profits — ties competition enforcement to data practices, raising the cost of the acquisition-led growth model that built the company.
- Any startup in adjacent social or messaging markets now faces a changed M&A environment: Facebook's most reliable exit path, buying emerging rivals, is the exact conduct under legal attack.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, large-platform acquisitions of nascent competitors shift from routine dealmaking to litigation-tested territory, and a successful challenge to already-consummed deals like Instagram and WhatsApp would set a precedent for unwinding mergers long after closing.
- The dual state-plus-federal structure seen here — parallel coalitions suing the same defendant — points toward a standing enforcement template for other dominant platforms.
The trend: US antitrust enforcement is moving from investigating platform acquisitions after the fact to formally attacking consummated deals, with state AG coalitions operating as a second, parallel enforcement arm alongside the FTC.