US Chamber Of Commerce Asks Judge To Reject Appeal In Facebook Antitrust Suit

The US Chamber of Commerce, perhaps the most powerful lobbying group in the United States, filed a brief on Monday March 28 urging a DC court to reject an appeal by a group of US states hoping to revive their antitrust lawsuit against Meta Platform’s Facebook, reported Reuters.

The Chamber, which represents over three million businesses, along with the Computer and Communications Industry Association and Business Roundtable, argued that the district court judge hearing the case was right to toss it out because the states had waited too long to file their case.

The states, led by New York Attorney General Letitia James, have argued the judge wrongly dismissed their case, which charged Facebook, now known as Meta, with  Deploying a buy-or-bury scheme and exclusionary conduct, illegally maintaining monopoly power and making predatory acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp to foreclose competition.

Judge James Boasberg of the US District Court for the District of Columbia last July dismissed the states’ lawsuit against Facebook, saying they delayed in challenging the acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp in 2012 and 2014 respectively.

Boasberg, who also dismissed a lawsuit filed by the US Federal Trade Commission, allowed the agency to refile its complaint but did not do so for the states.

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