Power.com Sues Facebook for Stifling Competition

Power.com, a site that allows people to sign in to several social networking sites from one place, is suing Facebook. According to Power.com, Facebook is trying to monopolize the social networking market by not allowing people from accessing their Facebook accounts from Power.com.

What is Power.com?

Power.com is a start-up company based in Brazil. It integrates social sites and creates a common environment for connecting users, communities and content in order to facilitate communication, browsing, and interactivity. The site is compatible with Orkut, Twitter, MySpace, Hi5, LinkedIn, Flogão and VoteMe. However, has faced some problems with Facebook in the recent past.

Why are Social Networks unhappy?

Many social networks are unhappy about Power.com trying to keep users on its own site.

Among other things, earlier in January, Facebook had sued Power.com for:

1. Copyright and trademark infringement
2. Unlawful competition
3. Violation of the computer fraud and abuse act

According to Facebook’s complaint, Power.com “is offering a product that solicits, stores and uses Facebook login information to access information stored on Facebook computers without authorization and to display Facebook copyrighted material without permission.”

Is Facebook stifling competition?

According to a statement from Power Company, Facebook is stifling competition by

• Restricting users
• Blocking access to Power.com.
• Restraining trade and monopolization.

Share your comments on what you think.