Meta Platforms has done all it can in court to fight back at the US Federal Trade Commission’s claims that it’s a monopoly. Now it’s up to a federal judge to decide whether the company should be broken up.
The seven-week trial wrapped up Tuesday, and now each side has four months to make its case in writing. Then US District Judge James Boasberg will decide whether Meta has an illegal monopoly in the social media market, and whether that dominance stemmed from its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp — deals for popular applications that closed more than a decade ago.
The FTC argues Meta, then known as Facebook, bought the two companies in 2012 and 2014 rather than compete with them. The agency argued Meta made the acquisitions to reinforce its monopoly in the slice of the social networking market that’s focused on connections between friends and family. If Boasberg sides with the FTC and finds the company illegally monopolized that market, it’s possible Meta could be forced to spin off Instagram, WhatsApp, or both. That process could still take years to play out. If Meta wins outright, the FTC is expected to quickly appeal. But Boasberg’s ruling will only address whether the company violated the law. If he sides with the FTC, that will trigger another trial over how to address the harm from Meta’s conduct.
It’s unclear when Boasberg will issue a ruling, though it could come before the end of the year.
A Meta spokesperson called the FTC’s case weak and said the trial revealed the competitive nature of the technology industry. The FTC maintains that only a full sale of both assets will fix the problem. Boasberg, though, will have some latitude to come up with his own solution. He could find that only one of the deals was illegal and require only a sale of that service. Or he could decide something else not yet contemplated by the FTC.
Lawyers for the FTC have spent recent weeks in Washington grilling various Meta executives, including Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg, about the company’s acquisitions and its leading role in the social networking industry. The FTC has argued that Meta dominates a narrowly defined segment of the social networking market referred to as “Personal Social Networking Services,” which focuses on friends and family sharing.
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