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Court Asked To Delay Consolidating Facebook Cases

By  |  January 5, 2021

According to a Bloomberg report, Facebook is asking a District of Columbia federal court to delay deciding whether it will consolidate two antitrust lawsuits until they have had time to answer the complaints.

Facebook, targeted last month in separate suits brought by the Federal Trade Commission and by 48 attorneys general, says consolidation should wait because certain claims and parties “may take different paths,” according to a memorandum filed Monday in the US District Court for the District of Columbia.

In December the FTC and 46 states sued Facebook, accusing the social-media giant of buying and freezing out small startups to choke competition.

The FTC’s sweeping antitrust case seeks to force Facebook to unwind its acquisitions of WhatsApp and Instagram, two of its landmark deals. The states filed a separate and similar lawsuit, alleging a lack of competition has harmed consumers, including by weakening privacy protections.

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