Judge Sets Trial Date for FTC Antitrust Lawsuit Against Meta

A Federal Trade Commission (FTC) lawsuit that aims to unwind Meta’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp is set to go to trial on April 14.

Judge James Boasburg announced the trial date Monday (Nov. 25), Reuters reported.

The FTC sued Meta in 2020, alleging that Meta, which was then known as Facebook, overpaid for Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014 in an illegal effort to maintain a monopoly on personal social networks, according to the report.

Meta argued that the case should be dismissed because it relies on an overly narrow definition of social media markets and ignored the competition the company faces from TikTok, YouTube, X and LinkedIn, the report said.

Boasberg rejected Meta’s argument on Nov. 13, saying that the FTC’s case should go to trial, per the report. At the same time, he said the FTC faces “hard questions.”

After the Nov. 13 ruling allowing the antitrust lawsuit to go to trial, a Meta spokesperson said: “We are confident that the evidence at trial will show that the acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp have been good for competition and consumers.”

FTC spokesperson Douglas Farrar said that the FTC filed the case under the Trump administration and continued it under the Biden administration, adding that the case “represents a bipartisan effort to curtail Meta’s monopoly power and restore competition to ensure freedom and innovation in the social media ecosystem.”

The lawsuit was initiated in December 2020 by the FTC and more than 40 state attorneys general. The FTC’s original lawsuit was dismissed in June 2021, with a federal judge ruling that the agency failed to provide sufficient evidence to support the claim that Meta held a monopoly. The FTC filed an amended lawsuit less than two months later.

In another, separate case, Meta said Nov. 14 that it will appeal the European Commission’s (EC) decision in a case alleging practices involving Facebook and Facebook Marketplace that cause competitive harm.

The EC announced Nov. 13 that it fined Meta 797.72 million euros (about $842 million), saying the company violated European Union antitrust rules by tying Facebook Marketplace to Facebook.