Meta Faces Potential Breakup With Start of Landmark Antitrust Trial

The US Federal Trade Commission is finally having its day in court against Meta Platforms, arguing that the company must be broken up for illegally monopolizing the social media market after buying Instagram and WhatsApp more than a decade ago.

- BLOOMBERG

The FTC's opening salvo began Monday in Washington before Chief Judge James Boasberg in a case that's been years in the making. Agency attorneys kicked off their arguments by invoking a long US tradition of seeking to ensure a competitive marketplace, one that the FTC's lead trial lawyer, Daniel Matheson, accused Meta of violating.

"For more than 100 years, American public policy has insisted firms must compete if they want to succeed," Matheson said in his opening statement. "The reason we are here is that Meta broke the deal."

If the FTC prevails, a spinoff of Instagram and WhatsApp would undo years of integration between the apps, disrupt two of the most popular digital consumer products in the world and potentially erase hundreds of billions of dollars in Meta's market value. It would also raise serious questions about how the government evaluates and approves deals.