A U.S. district judge on Tuesday dismissed a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) complaint that Meta Platforms held an illegal monopoly in social media, defeating one of the U.S. government's blockbuster antitrust lawsuits against big tech companies.
Judge James. Boasberg dismissed the FTC's complaint that Meta gained monopoly power through its acquisitions of Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014. The FTC has argued that this monopoly still exists today because Meta's products focus on connecting friends and family and do not compete with entertainment apps such as YouTube.
Boasberg, who was appointed by former President Obama, dismissed that argument. During the six-week trial, FTC lawyers often struggled to prove clear differences between the way people use Facebook and Instagram and the way they consume content on YouTube and other services.
"Regardless of whether Meta enjoyed monopoly power in the past, the agency must demonstrate that it still has such power in the present," Boasberg wrote in his opinion. "This court's ruling today finds that the FTC failed to do so."