Meta ordered to face FTC antitrust lawsuit over Instagram, WhatsApp purchases

Facebook owner Meta Platforms must face trial in a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit seeking to sever it over claims it bought Instagram and WhatsApp to stifle emerging competition in social media, a Washington judge ruled Wednesday.

Judge James Boasberg largely denied Meta’s request to end the lawsuit filed against Facebook in 2020 during the Trump administration, alleging the company acted illegally to maintain its monopoly on the social network .

Mark Zuckerberg’s meta, then known as Facebook, overpaid Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014 to eliminate new threats rather than compete on its own in the mobile ecosystem, the FTC alleges.

Boasberg let that claim stand, but rejected the FTC’s contention that Facebook strengthened its dominance by limiting 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 spokesman Douglas Farrar said the case filed during the Trump administration and refined under Biden “represents a bipartisan effort to limit 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 that the WhatsApp acquisition has increased competition by strengthening its position against Apple and Google, Boasberg ruled.

The judge said he would issue a detailed order later Wednesday after the FTC and Meta have had a chance to redact any commercially sensitive information.

A trial date for this case has not been set.

Meta had asked the judge to dismiss the entire case, saying it hinged on an overly narrow view of social media markets and failed to take into account competition from ByteDance’s TikTok, YouTube, Google’s X and Microsoft’s LinkedIn.

The case is one of five major lawsuits where antitrust regulators at the FTC and Justice Department are pursuing Big Tech.

Amazon and Apple are both being sued, and Alphabet’s Google is facing two lawsuits, including one where a judge recently found that it unlawfully hindered competition between Internet search engines.