Meta won its high-profile antitrust case against the Federal Trade Commission, which had accused the company of holding a monopoly in social networking. In a memorandum opinion released Tuesday, Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., said the FTC failed to prove its argument. The case, initially filed by the FTC five years ago, centered on Meta’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp.
“Whether or not Meta enjoyed monopoly power in the past, though, the agency must show that it continues to hold such power now,” Boasberg said in the filing. “The Court’s verdict today determines that the FTC has not done so. A judgment so stating shall issue this day.”
Boasberg dismissed the case in 2021, saying the agency didn’t have enough evidence to prove “Facebook holds market power.” In August of that year, the FTC filed an amended complaint with more details about the company’s user numbers and metrics relative to competitors like Snapchat, the now-defunct Google+ social network and Myspace.
After reviewing the amendments, Boasberg in 2022 ruled that the case could proceed, saying the FTC had presented more details than before. “We are deeply disappointed in this decision,” said Joe Simonson, the FTC’s director of public affairs. “The deck was always stacked against us with Judge Boasberg, who is currently facing articles of impeachment. We are reviewing all our options.”
Republicans in Congress have called for Boasberg to be impeached because of rulings he has made against immigration-related actions by the Trump administration, and for signing off on subpoenas for phone records of GOP lawmakers as part of special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation of President Donald Trump’s efforts to undo his 2020 election loss.
