WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A Washington judge ruled on Wednesday that Meta Platforms, owner of Facebook, must be tried in proceedings opened by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) aimed at dismantling it, due to of allegations that the group bought Instagram and WhatsApp to crush emerging competition.
According to the FTC, Meta, then known as Facebook, overpaid for its acquisitions of Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014, in order to eliminate emerging threats.
Judge James Boasberg largely rejected the social media group’s motion to end the suit filed in 2020, during the Trump administration, alleging the company acted illegally to maintain its monopoly.
However, allegations that Facebook limited third-party app developers’ access to the platform unless they agreed not to compete with its core services were also dismissed.
James Boasberg also prohibited Meta from invoking in its defense the fact that the acquisition of WhatsApp benefited its strategic position vis-à-vis Apple and Google.
Meta had tried to argue that the FTC’s case was based on too narrow a view of the social media market and that it did not take into account competition from TikTok, YouTube, X or LinkedIn.
The judge said he will issue a detailed ruling later Wednesday, once the FTC and Meta have had a chance to redact any commercially sensitive information from the document.
A trial date has not yet been set.
(Reporting Jody Godoy; French version Etienne Breban; edited by Augustin Turpin)
