A judge determined that Meta Platforms Inc.’s Facebook must face a monopoly case filed by the US government, saying that the firm abused its control and should be broken up.
Facebook’s move to dismiss the Federal Trade Commission’s amended antitrust complaint, which the agency refiled after the judge dismissed the case in June, was refused by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington. The FTC’s claims are “more strong and specific,” according to Boasberg’s opinion.
“The FTC has now alleged enough facts to plausibly establish that Facebook exercises monopoly power,” the judge wrote. “The agency has also explained that Facebook not only possesses monopoly power, but that it has willfully maintained that power through anticompetitive conduct.”
The decision is a major win for the FTC and Chair Lina Khan, who took over the case when she was named to lead the agency by President Joe Biden. The FTC filed the new complaint in August with new details to bolster the agency’s claim that Facebook has dominant market shares in the U.S. personal social-networking market and has the power to exclude competition. The case seeks a court order to unwind Facebook’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp.
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The case is U.S. Federal Trade Commission v. Facebook Inc., 20-3590, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
