Meta must face trial in a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission seeking to split him over allegations that he bought Instagram and WhatsApp to crush emerging competition on social media, a judge in Washington ruled Wednesday.
Judge James Boasberg largely rejected Meta’s motion to end the case brought against Facebook in 2020, during the Trump administration, alleging that the company acted illegally to maintain its monopoly on the social network.
Meta, then known as Facebook, overpaid for Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014 to eliminate nascent threats rather than compete on its own in the mobile ecosystem, the FTC claims.
Boasberg accepted that claim, but dismissed the FTC’s claim that Facebook reinforced its dominance by restricting third-party app developers from accessing the platform unless they agreed not to compete with its core services.
“We are confident that the evidence at trial will show that the acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp have been good for competition and consumers,” a Meta spokesperson said Wednesday.
FTC spokesman Douglas Farrar said the case filed during the Trump administration and refined under Biden “represents a bipartisan effort to reduce Meta’s monopoly power and restore competition to ensure freedom and innovation in the technology ecosystem.” social networks”.
You may be interested in: Investors expect more growth and inflation after Trump’s victory: survey
At trial, Meta will not be allowed to argue that the WhatsApp acquisition boosted competition by strengthening its position against Apple and Google.
The judge said he would issue a detailed order later Wednesday after the FTC and Meta have had a chance to redact any confidential business information.
A trial date has not been set in this case.
Meta had urged the judge to dismiss the entire case, saying it relied on too narrow a view of social media markets and did not take into account competition from ByteDance’s TikTok, Google’s YouTube, X and Microsoft.
The case is one of five blockbuster lawsuits in which antitrust regulators from the FTC and the US Department of Justice are pursuing Big Tech companies.
Amazon and Apple are being sued, and Alphabet faces two lawsuits, including one in which a judge recently found that Google had illegally hindered competition among online search engines.
With information from Reuters.
