EU regulators target metaverses

EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager said that metaverses could become regulators’ next target. Reuters reports this.

The official expressed concerns about Meta’s dominance in this space. She also noted that political debates on the metaverse segment have already begun, though European jurisdictions are advancing at different speeds on the issue.

“We need to start thinking about what healthy competition in the metaverse will look like. […] We will not have the old legal framework. And perhaps that’s not a bad thing, because it will allow us to refine regulatory tools through mutual learning,” added the EU representative.

Over the past year, Meta has actively entered the realm of virtual worlds, releasing VR— and AR developments. However, according to the fourth-quarter 2022 report, the losses of the metaverse-related Reality Labs division within the company amounted to $4.28 billion.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg attributed the disappointing financial results to weaker sales of the virtual-reality headset Quest 2 and rising internal costs.

Additionally, the company’s chief technical officer and head of Reality Labs acknowledged Andrew Bosworth that it could take years before fully functional AR headsets appear, despite billions in investment.

Earlier, representatives of Meta urged politicians refrain from regulating metaverses.