FTC Can Refile Antitrust Case Against Facebook, Judge Rules

The Federal Trade Commission will now have another chance to go after its illegal monopolization charges against Facebook, CNBC reported Tuesday (Jan. 11).

The judge has thus rejected Facebook’s motion to get rid of the lawsuit, granting the FTC another opportunity to pursue the charges.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg has said Facebook’s earlier motion to dismiss last summer could go forward, although the FTC was able to try again.

Boasberg initially did away with the FTC complaint, writing that it hadn’t plausibly alleged the monopoly power of Facebook in what it defined as the personal social networking services market. The release has noted that the definition wanted to exclude other platforms like YouTube or LinkedIn.

Boasberg also got rid of a similar lawsuit from several state attorneys general, for which he refused a chance for reconsideration.

“The Federal Trade Commission’s first antitrust suit against Facebook, Inc. stumbled out of the starting blocks, as this Court dismissed the Complaint last June,” Boasberg wrote in Tuesday’s filing.

He said while the Commission’s core theory remains the same in its updated complaint, “The facts alleged this time around to fortify those theories, however, are far more robust and detailed than before, particularly in regard to the contours of Defendant’s alleged monopoly.”

Boasberg has said the FTC could still see challenges to prove its allegations, but the FTC has “now cleared the pleading bar and may proceed to discovery,” he said.

PYMNTS writes that this isn’t the first time Facebook has seen other challenges, including from Phhhoto, the now-defunct photo app startup which filed an antitrust lawsuit in New York.

See also: Defunct Startup Phhhoto Slaps Facebook With Lawsuit Alleging Anti-Competitive Practices

The lawsuit accused Facebook of using anticompetitive tactics to do away with rivals.

According to Phhhoto, Facebook faked interest in the app. Then, when the social media giant rolled out Instagram — its own image-based product with similar features — Phhhoto’s founders allege that Instagram buried their content on the app.