Meta has asked a United States federal judge to immediately rule on the Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust case, which would end the case partway through its trial.
The case brought by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) alleges Meta gained a social media monopoly through the anti-competitive acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp, and would require Meta to divest from these apps. Meta is now due to respond after the FTC rested its case today, but has filed for an early ruling, arguing that the FTC failed to prove that Meta has a monopoly.
“With the close of the FTC’s case, the trial record establishes that Meta Platforms, Inc. acquired Instagram and WhatsApp in order to improve them and expand its own portfolio of services – to better compete against many dynamic, innovative, and fierce rivals,” Meta wrote in its filing.
“This Court should grant judgment in Meta’s favour because the FTC has no proof that Meta has monopoly power.”
The FTC has argued that Meta purchased Instagram and WhatsApp to stifle looming competition from these social media networks. The agency presented emails from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg shortly before acquiring Instagram in 2012, in which he said the move would “neutralise a potential competitor”.
Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom also testified last month that Meta did not provide Instagram with sufficient funding after the acquisition, saying Zuckerberg “was not investing in Instagram because he believed we were a threat to their growth.”
Per the FTC, Meta’s only significant social media rivals designed to link users with their friends or family are far smaller apps like Snapchat and MeWe. Meta disputed in its filing that a distinct "friends-and-family-sharing" social market exists, however, claiming that its main rivals are TikTok and YouTube.
Meta has requested a judgment on partial findings, which would push Washington, D.C. District Court Judge James Boasberg to rule on the case’s merits based on the evidence heard thus far.
The trial is expected to continue until June. It has featured testimony from Meta executives like Zuckerberg and former COO Sheryl Sandberg, as well as Instagram head Adam Mosseri and representatives from TikTok, Reddit, and X.
Meta's (NASDAQ: META) share price closed at US$643.88, down from its previous close of $659.36. Its market capitalisation is $1.62 trillion.
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