news Meta will face antitrust trial over Instagram, WhatsApp acquisitions

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A federal judge ruled Wednesday that Meta must face trial in an antitrust case brought by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over the social media giant’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg denied Meta’s request to drop the FTC’s case, though the judge did dismiss one portion of the lawsuit, and said he would hold a hearing later this month to discuss a trial date.


“In the end, while the parties’ legal jousting is both impressive and comprehensive, it leaves no clear victor. This case must go to trial. Under the forgiving summary-judgment standard, the FTC has put forward evidence sufficient for a reasonable factfinder to rule in its favor,” Boasberg wrote in his 92-page opinion.

The FTC sued Meta in 2020, alleging the social media giant has illegally maintained a monopoly on personal social networking through its acquisition of Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014.

The case has remained in pre-trial proceedings for multiple years. It was initially dismissed in 2021 but the FTC later filed an amended complaint.

Boasberg scheduled a virtual status conference on Nov. 25 to discuss the trial schedule.


Meta, which has denied the FTC’s monopoly allegations, said it would review the opinion when it’s filed.

“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 in a statement. “More than 10 years after the FTC reviewed and cleared these deals, and despite the overwhelming evidence that our services compete with YouTube, TikTok, X, Apple’s iMessage, and many others, the Commission is wrongly continuing to assert that no deal is ever truly final, and businesses can be punished for innovating.”

Source: https://thehill.com/policy/technology/4988461-meta-antitrust-case-ftc/

 

[Reelz]

The dominance of Meta in the online social circle is concerning. The FTC's case highlights these concerns. One of which is the potential stifling of competition in the market. I still can imagine what the outcome would be considering the influence of Meta in social media.

 

[ActionAce]

This is a very complex one. In my opinion, I think it would be unfair on the part of Meta to be penalized on the past acquisition. It would be fine if the current standard is only applicable to the acquisition made after the set standards. As to monopolization, this issue doesn't work for me because online is free for everyone to operate. The only difficulty is the challenges to compete against tech giants like Meta.

 

[Harsh World]

What is up with the US Government finally coming down on these guys?

First Google, now Meta?

Might see some real change for competitiveness to open back up.

 

[Alamson]

I don't think Meta will lose this case. The government approves mergers and acquisitions. The Justice Department and FTC would have reviewed those acquisitions before they were finalised. Those agencies, not Meta, should be held accountable for negligence

 

[Harsh World]

I don't think Meta will lose this case. The government approves mergers and acquisitions. The Justice Department and FTC would have reviewed those acquisitions before they were finalised. Those agencies, not Meta, should be held accountable for negligence

They could have approved it at the time because there were TikTok, etc., which did serve as alternatives for Instagram. However, Instagram Reels was introduced after that, (I would have to check the dates), which made them competitive with Tiktok, and then Threads to compete with Twitter/X.

So, they might not have pushed their weight when initially approved, but they pushed forward to stomp out competition later on.

I don't think you can call it negligence by not being able to see the future landscape of what they could turn into.

 

[Alamson]

They could have approved it at the time because there were TikTok, etc., which did serve as alternatives for Instagram. However, Instagram Reels was introduced after that, (I would have to check the dates), which made them competitive with Tiktok, and then Threads to compete with Twitter/X.

So, they might not have pushed their weight when initially approved, but they pushed forward to stomp out competition later on.

I don't think you can call it negligence by not being able to see the future landscape of what they could turn into.

I agree with you. The business environment is dynamic. It's possible new facts show that competition is reducing and consumers' choice is getting restricted.

 

[Immortal]

Big businesses are created by monopoly and duopoly. If they are investigating Meta, they should also investigate Black Rock. How could a single company manage $11.5 trillion assets.

 

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Meta goes to trial to avoid a breakup of Instagram and WhatsApp​

Did Meta illegally monopolize the market for “personal social networking services?”

• Federal Trade Commission on Monday in a high-stakes antitrust trial that could result in the company divesting Instagram and WhatsApp.
• The upcoming trial in Washington is expected to last several weeks and centers around the FTC’s allegations that Meta monopolizes the personal social networking market.
• The trial will test the boundaries of the U.S.’s antitrust laws pertaining to corporate acquisitions, said Prasad Krishnamurthy, a law professor at U.C. Berkeley Law.

Meta will face off against the U.S. Federal Trade Commission on Monday in a high-stakes antitrust trial that could result in the company divesting Instagram and WhatsApp.

The trial in Washington is expected to last weeks and centers around the FTC’s allegations that Meta monopolizes the personal social networking market. CEO Mark Zuckerberg, former COO Sheryl Sandberg, Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom and other current and former Meta executives are expected to testify, along with top brass from rivals TikTok, Snap and Google’s YouTube, according to a legal filing.


The FTC claims Meta shouldn’t have been allowed to buy Instagram for $1 billion in 2012 and WhatsApp for $19 billion in 2014, and the agency is calling for those units to be sliced off from the Menlo Park, California, company.

“Acquiring these competitive threats has enabled Facebook to sustain its dominance—to the detriment of competition and users—not by competing on the merits, but by avoiding competition,” the FTC said in a legalfiling.

Meta disagrees and filed a pretrial brief last week reiterating its arguments that it is not a monopoly and that acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp has not harmed competition.

The trial will test the boundaries of the U.S.’s antitrust laws pertaining to corporate acquisitions, said Prasad Krishnamurthy, a law professor at U.C. Berkeley Law. The FTC will have to prove that not only did Meta monopolize the social media market but that its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp actively “harmed competition.”

“It’s a big case because it involves Meta, a social media giant, and it involves one of the most important kind of markets in the world, the social media market,” Krishnamurthy said. “It has big implications for something that consumers use as part of their daily life, Instagram and WhatsApp.”

Judge James E. Boasberg, chief judge of the Federal District Court in DC, stands for a portrait at E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse in Washington, DC on March 16, 2023.
Carolyn Van Houten | The Washington Post | Getty Images
The FTC filed its antitrust case against Meta in 2020, but judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court in Washington dismissed the case in 2021, saying the agency did not have enough evidence to prove “Facebook holds market power.”

Despite the dismissal, the FTC in August 2021 filed an amended complaint with more details about the company’s user numbers and metrics relative to competitors like Snapchat, the now-defunct Google+ social network and Myspace. After reviewing the amendments, Boasberg in 2022 ruledthat the case could proceed, saying the FTC had presented more details than before.

“Although the agency may well face a tall task down the road in proving its allegations, the Court believes that it has now cleared the pleading bar and may proceed to discovery,” Boasberg wrote.

Meta motioned to end the case last April, but Boasberg denied it, ruling in November that the company must face trial. In a small victory for Meta, however, Boasberg did dismiss the FTC’s allegation that Facebook restricted third-party app developers’ access to its platform to maintain market dominance.

The company is expected to push back on the rest of the FTC’s allegations at trial on Monday. In a recent pre-trial brief, Meta’s lawyers wrote that the FTC fails to acknowledge that the company competes with numerous rivals, including TikTok, YouTube and Apple’s iMessage.

In a statement provided to CNBC, Meta said the FTC’s lawsuit “defies reality.”

“The evidence at trial will show what every 17-year-old in the world knows: Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp compete with Chinese-owned TikTok, YouTube, X, iMessage and many others,” Meta said. “More than 10 years after the FTC reviewed and cleared our acquisitions, the Commission’s action in this case sends the message that no deal is ever truly final.”

But the FTC’s core argument is that the company has monopolized the specific market of personal social networking, saying there are no major alternatives to Meta’s apps like Facebook and Instagram, which are used by people to stay up to date and communicate with friends and family in an online, shared-social space.

This disputed notion of the market that Meta operates and competes in could be crucial to the case’s outcome, Krishnamurthy said.

“When you look at antitrust cases, the market definition that comes out of the case, even what ends up being the one that determines the ruling, is often not anything remotely like how lay people or even businesses in that market will describe it,” Krishnamurthy said.

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/11/ftc-meta-instagram-whatsapp-lawsuit.html

https://twitter.com/x/status/1911092203470073993

https://twitter.com/x/status/1910904821240238498

https://twitter.com/x/status/1910902124512522458

 

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Lina Khan Says Facebook ‘Panicked’ — And That’s Why It Bought Instagram and WhatsApp​

Summary: As the FTC vs Meta trial begins this week, former FTC chair, Lina Khan talked about the deals that saw Facebook acquire Instagram and WhatsApp. Khan believes that Facebook “Panicked” and bought Instagram and WhatsApp after seeing their astronomical growth.

Lina Khan, the former US FTC chairperson, stated in an interview on CNBC today that Facebook saw companies like Instagram and WhatsApp experiencing “astronomical growth, and that’s the point at which it resorted to this buy-or-bury scheme, where it if couldn’t outcompete a rival, it either bought them out or cut them off its network”.

Khan also stated in the interview that “there’s no expiration date when it comes to the illegality of the transaction. I think there is a way in which the entire social media ecosystem looks different today because Facebook was permitted to go out and make these acquisitions.” She also noted that Facebook “panicked” when it decided to acquire Instagram and WhatsApp, mainly due to smartphone use taking off at the time.

Meta is starting a trial with the FTC today, over monopolistic business practices​

On Monday, Meta started its FTC trial, with the company’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, taking the stand. This trial is about the government alleging that Facebook monopolized the personal social networking market when it acquired Instagram for $1 billion in 2012 and WhatsApp for $19 billionin 2014.

This trial could ultimately result in Meta having to divest the two companies. Which could greatly change the social media landscape as we know it today. Meta, of course, detailed in its pretrial brief that it disagrees with the FTC, and reiterates that it believes the company does not have a monopoly.

Despite Zuckerberg donating $1 million to President Trump’s inauguration fund, Trump’s FTC is continuing on with this trial against Meta and Facebook. Zuckerberg has also reportedly met with the President multiple times since the inauguration.

Source: https://www.androidheadlines.com/20...ats-why-it-bought-instagram-and-whatsapp.html