Federal Judge Dismisses FTC Antitrust Complaint Against Facebook

A federal court on Monday (June 28) dismissed a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) antitrust complaint against Facebook, which could have forced the breakup of the social media giant from its Instagram and WhatsApp holdings.

“Although the Court does not agree with all of Facebook’s contentions here, it ultimately concurs that the agency’s Complaint is legally insufficient and must therefore be dismissed,” according to the court filing.

“The FTC has failed to plead enough facts to plausibly establish a necessary element of all of its Section 2 claims — namely, that Facebook has monopoly power in the market for Personal Social Networking (PSN) Services,” per the filing from the Federal Court in the District of Columbia.

The FTC will have the chance to file an amended complaint, but the lawsuit brought about by the coalition of state attorneys general is entirely dismissed, CNBC reported. The court indicated that the FTC did not provide sufficient evidence that proves Facebook maintains a monopoly.

“The Court agrees that the first — the possession of monopoly power in the market for Personal Social Networking Services (as defined by the agency) — is not adequately pleaded here,” according to the court filing. “No more is needed to conclude that the Complaint must be dismissed.”

The court also did not agree with Facebook’s contention that the FTC didn’t hold power to contest the social media giant’s 2012 acquisition of Instagram or the 2014 purchase of Whatsapp. The court ruled that the FTC can still move to separate the companies if it can prove Facebook’s monopoly power.

“The Complaint is undoubtedly light on specific factual allegations regarding consumer-switching preferences,” according to the court. “These allegations — which do not even provide an estimated actual figure or range for Facebook’s market share at any point over the past ten years — ultimately fall short of plausibly establishing that Facebook holds market power.”

The original case was launched last year in December and could have forced divestitures of assets, and could have blocked Facebook from imposing anti-competitive conditions on software developers.