Judge says the FTC’s Meta monopoly lawsuit can go forward

The image is by Alex Castro.

A federal judge says the FTC can proceed with an antitrust lawsuit against Meta after dismissing the suit last year.

The FTC's first complaint has "stumbled out of the starting blocks," according to an opinion released today by the District of Columbia Judge. The new version makes the same arguments with more detail and robustness. He denied Meta's motion to dismiss and allow the case to proceed, but he stated that the agency may face a tall task in proving its allegations.

The FTC may face a tall task in proving its claims.

Meta has been accused by the FTC of holding an illegal monopoly in personal social networking services and maintaining it by acquiring competitors. The agency has supported the allegation with data about Meta's market power, although it was held back on approving older Meta interoperability policies.

The opinion says that the complaint provides reinforcing allegations that all point to the same conclusion: Facebook has maintained a dominant market share. If you accept the market definition and the reliability of the FTC's data, you will see that Facebook's market share is comfortably exceeds the levels that courts normally find sufficient to establish monopoly power.

Meta has accused the FTC head of prejudging her guilt in order to invalidate her complaint, but the head of the FTC denied that. The court recognizes the importance of her vote, but it is not true to say that Khan is the sole instigator of the current case.

The FTC suit against Meta is one of several US government efforts to curtail the monopoly power of major tech companies.

The decision reverses a blow that was dealt to the FTC in June, when he said the complaint contained "nothing" proving Meta's monopoly power except for the "naked allegation" that it held a dominant share of personal social networking services. The claim was amended with Comscore data to show Meta's market share of daily active users and monthly active users of social networks. The numbers were convincing enough to allow the FTC to clear the first hurdle and proceed with discovery, where more details could come to light.

Chris Sgro sent a statement to The Verge. The decision narrows the scope of the FTC case by rejecting claims about our platform policies. The agency faces a tall task in proving its case regarding two acquisitions it cleared years ago. The evidence will show the weakness of the claims. Our investments in both of them turned them into what they are today. They have been good for competition and good for businesses that use our products.

The statement from Meta has been added.