The FTC has filed a legal complaint against Meta, highlighting a violation of antitrust policies. Supernatural is a famous VR fitness app that features music tracks from prominent artists. Meta also released its Q2 2022 financial results, and its Reality Labs division lost at least $2.8 billion this quarter.

The Federal Trade Commission currently intends to block social media giant Meta from purchasing the VR fitness app named Supernatural.

The FTC said Meta already has a significant role at each level of the virtual reality sector and highlights the Oculus Quest, its app store, one of the best-selling apps of all time, as evidence of its current dominion.

As a result, it does not desire CEO Mark Zuckerberg to purchase Supernatural to pave its way to reach market dominance. FTC Bureau of Competition Deputy Director John Newman explained that, Instead of competing on the merits, Meta is trying to make its way to the top by purchasing resources.

According to FTC, Meta already owns a best-selling virtual reality fitness app, so it had the power to compete with Within’s popular Supernatural app. But Meta desires to acquire its market position instead of earning it with hard work. This action is an illegal procedure, and the FTC will stand in favor of more appropriate behavior.

Supernatural is a dedicated virtual reality app that brings a VR experience for working out, including music works with major artists like Coldplay, Katy Perry, and Lady Gaga. The complaint highlights that acquiring an app such as Supernatural, Meta would reduce the competition and goes against antitrust policies.

Metaverse Division Reality Labs Observed a $2.8B Loss.

Meta also revealed its second quarter financial results for 2022. Like the quarters before, the results present that VR and metaverse strategies represent a challenge for the entity. The company has already lost $2.8 billion this quarter from its Reality Labs division and $5.7 billion this year.

The company also hopes that the third-quarter Reality Labs income could be lower than the second quarter, which is not a good prediction. Still, the entity continues to use its resources to improve the metaverse.

Meta does not Receive Major impacts by Losses

Meta leads many parallel efforts closely linked to the metaverse and NFTs. Earlier this month, Meta enacted an NFT showcase feature on Facebook profiles. The crypto winter does not seem to have discouraged this project either, as it has confirmed that, during this time, it will still have NFTs.

Many big tech entities are trying to make their way to the metaverse; these entities are working hard to get on top. In the past year, many patents got filed, which is a sign that the metaverse will face promising improvements.

Big Tech in the Metaverse

The colonization of the metaverse is a reality. The metaverse is an integrated network of 3D virtual reality spaces, an immersive environment that, according to many tech experts, would become the next big stage of the internet. Patent applications include everything from hardware and software created to represent items found in the real world but emulated in a virtual world by 3D projections.

By: Jenson Nuñez

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