A judge from the District Court of Columbia has ruled that Meta must respond to an antitrust lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which accuses the company of abusing its dominant position in the social media market by acquiring competitors Instagram and WhatsApp. The lawsuit was initiated in 2020, alleging that Meta purchased these companies to eliminate potential competition.
Previously, Judge James Boasberg dismissed the lawsuit in 2021; however, after the FTC submitted an amended complaint, he allowed the case to proceed. Meta made another attempt to halt the proceedings in April of this year, but the judge largely sided with the FTC, keeping the lawsuit active. He did, however, dismiss the claim that Meta restricted access to its APIs for developers who did not agree to refrain from creating competing applications.
In response to the allegations, Meta's representative Christopher Sgro stated that the company is confident in a favorable outcome for the case, emphasizing that the acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp were approved by regulators over a decade ago. He added that the company's services actively compete with YouTube, TikTok, iMessage, and other major platforms, which he believes refutes the FTC's allegations.
Although the FTC lawsuit was filed during Donald Trump's administration, experts believe that his potential return to the presidency could lead to a more lenient approach to mergers and acquisitions. It is anticipated that if Trump wins the election, he will replace the current FTC chair Lina Khan, and many large companies have already started to build friendly relations with him.