Meta Platforms, the holder company of Facebook, will go to trial in a high-stakes lawsuit filed by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which seeks to break up the company over accusations that it acquired Instagram and WhatsApp to stifle emerging competition in the social media space.
In a ruling on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg denied Meta's motion to dismiss the case, allowing the legal challenge to proceed. The lawsuit, originally filed in 2020 under the Trump administration, alleges that Meta (formerly Facebook) overpaid for Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014—not to enhance its offerings, but to eliminate potential rivals and consolidate its dominance in the mobile ecosystem.
The FTC's case centers on claims that these acquisitions were part of a broader strategy to suppress competition rather than engage in fair market strife.
Boasberg allowed that claim to stand but dismissed the FTC’s allegation that Facebook supported its dominance by restricting third-party app developers’ access to 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 spokesperson Douglas Farrar said the case, filed during the Trump administration and refined under Biden, “represents a bipartisan effort to curtail Meta’s monopoly power and restore competition to ensure freedom and innovation in the social media ecosystem.”
At trial, Meta will not be allowed to argue the WhatsApp acquisition boosted competition by strengthening its position against Apple and Google, Boasberg ruled.
The judge said he would release a detailed order later Wednesday after the FTC and Meta have had a chance to redact any sensitive commercial information.
A trial date in the case has not been set.
Meta had urged the judge to dismiss the entire case, saying it depended on an overly narrow view of social media markets and did not account for competition from ByteDance’s TikTok, Google’s YouTube, X, and Microsoft’s LinkedIn.
The case is part of a broader crackdown on Big Tech, with antitrust regulators at the FTC and U.S. Department of Justice pursuing five high-profile lawsuits. Amazon and Apple are both facing legal challenges, while Alphabet's Google is embroiled in two lawsuits, including one in which a judge recently ruled that the company unlawfully stifled competition in the online search market.
Source: Daily Sabah
Bd-pratidin English/ Jisan
