Metaverse already needs competition scrutiny, says EU antitrust chief

The metaverse could be next in EU competition regulators' crosshairs, said antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager on Thursday — with concerns about Meta's dominance at the top of the docket. 

"It's already time for us to start asking what healthy competition would look like in the metaverse," Vestager said at the Keystone Conference. 

Vestager noted that there is already a political debate about the attention paid to digital markets, with all jurisdictions moving forward at different speeds. "We will not get the same legal framework," she said, adding: "And maybe that is not a bad thing. Because that will allow us to hone our toolkits in the process of mutual learning."

Meta, formerly Facebook, has made an audacious play to grab market share in this emerging tech area, putting billions on the line to develop hardware and software. It is the market's leading producer of virtual-reality headsets. The company reported a $4.3 billion loss in the fourth quarter of last year for its metaverse division, Reality Labs. The division lost $3.3 billion in the same quarter a year ago.