Court rejects FTC claim that Meta holds monopoly

Ruling finds the firm’s purchase of Instagram and WhatsApp did not prove otherwise.

- BY DAVID G. SAVAGE AND WENDY LEE

LORENZO DI COLA NurPhoto

META'S buying of Instagram and WhatsApp were the basis of the FTC's claims.

A federal judge rejected the government’s antitrust suit against Meta Platforms Inc. on Tuesday, ruling that the company’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp did not give it monopoly control in social media.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington, D.C., said the five-year legal battle showed that the social media market was ever changing, not static.

He said the Federal Trade Commission failed to prove that the tech giant had used its wealth and power to extend its control of the social networking market.

“With apps surging and receding, chasing one craze and moving on from others, and adding new features with each passing year, the FTC has understandably struggled to fix the boundaries of Meta’s product market,” the judge wrote in an 89-page opinion. “Whether or not Meta enjoyed monopoly power in the past, though, the agency must show that it continues to hold such power now.”

The antitrust suit was first filed in 2020 during the first Trump administration. Back then, Boasberg said, the suits “did not even mention the word ‘Tik Tok.’ Today, that app holds center stage as Meta’s fiercest rival.”

He concluded, “Meta holds no monopoly in the relevant market.”

The decision is a major setback for the federal government and its antitrust regulators.

Biden administration appointees at the FTC had revived and pressed the suit against Meta, arguing that it should be forced to divest itself of Instagram and the messaging service WhatsApp.