We have seen a surge in regulators ensuring that companies behave responsibly and do not engage in any kind of practices that may hinder competition and be anti-competitive in nature. Google has been facing a lot of pressure for its monopoly in the search engine market, and many other large companies are also under scrutiny. Now Meta appears to be in hot water, with an antitrust lawsuit filed against it for dominating the social media industry through WhatsApp and Instagram.
Meta faces trial by FTC on charges of interference with competition over decision to acquire Instagram and WhatsApp
The FTC appears to be actively working to ensure that companies do not indulge in monopolistic practices and form dominance that prevents healthy competition from continuing in the marketplace. Meta seems to be being targeted now. On Wednesday, a D.C. District Court judge ruled that the company had created a dominance in the social media industry through its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp and faces an antitrust lawsuit as a result.
The FTC has been tracking Meta since 2020. It is alleged that it acquired the two largest social media platforms to build market power by disrupting competition and eliminating potential rivals. A judge dismissed the lawsuit in 2021 on the grounds that there wasn’t enough evidence to support the claims, but the FTC later filed an amended complaint, and the judge gave the go-ahead to the lawsuit that could separate Instagram and WhatsApp from the social media giants. .
Meta asked to have the lawsuit dismissed in April, but this time Judge James Boasberg ruled primarily in the FTC’s favor, so the lawsuit will move forward. But the judge dismissed specific claims of Meta’s anticompetitive practices, which included limiting developer access to the Meta API unless they agreed not to compete with Meta apps, narrowing the scope of the lawsuit. .
Meta spokesperson Christopher Sgro issued a statement to The Verge about the ongoing lawsuit, sharing that he is confident it will win and that the acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp is actually a good thing for consumers. To support his statement, he suggested that the acquisition was old and had previously been approved by the FTC. He also claimed that the acquired platform is actually competing with services like X, TikTok, YouTube, iMessage and many others.
It’s important to point out that while the FTC aggressively pursues companies that allegedly stifle competition, the antitrust lawsuit against Meta came during the Trump administration, which has generally been more lenient on mergers and acquisitions. Now, during a second Trump term, he could again exercise authority over regulators who have made many changes to regulations since his last term.
