WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) – The US government has failed in court in its attempt to force the separation of Instagram and WhatsApp from the Facebook group Meta (Meta Platforms (ex Facebook)). The judge at the district court in the capital Washington ruled that the FTC could not substantiate its monopoly claim.
The FTC accused the Facebook Group of buying the chat service WhatsApp and the photo platform Instagram in order to illegally protect its own monopoly position. That’s why she demanded consequences, including reversing the takeovers. Meta rejected the allegations and, among other things, referred to tough competition with other platforms such as Tiktok.
Judge James Boasberg emphasized that the FTC had to prove, among other things, that Meta currently holds a monopoly position in the market. The authority failed to do this.
It could be years before the case is finally resolved if the government appeals the decision.
Lawsuit from Trump’s first term
Still under the name Facebook, the company bought Instagram in 2012 for around $1 billion and WhatsApp in 2014 for around $22 billion. Instagram in particular is now an important source of revenue for Meta. The US competition authorities had approved the takeovers at the time.
The lawsuit was filed in December 2020 at the end of Trump’s first term in office. At the time, observers also saw it as a means of political pressure. Among other things, Trump and his supporters were dissatisfied with the way Meta took action on its platforms against false and misleading information – such as the president’s claims that the election victory was stolen from him through fraud.
Biden’s administration continued
Judge Boasberg dismissed this first version of the lawsuit with humiliating words for the FTC lawyers at the time. Among other things, he criticized the fact that they had not bothered to substantiate the monopoly accusation against Facebook with numbers. But the FTC stuck to the lawsuit even under Trump’s successor Joe Biden and filled it with lots of numbers.
She noted that from 2016 to 2020, Facebook had an average market share of 80 percent of daily active users on smartphones and 98 percent on PCs. At no time and on no device type did the proportion fall below 70 percent.
The FTC faced high hurdles in the process. Since Instagram and WhatsApp are free, the frequent reference to higher prices for consumers in US competition proceedings did not work. The agency instead argued that the quality of Meta’s apps had declined amid weakened competition. Meta countered that users had benefited from the takeovers – and they were also good for competition./so/DP/he
By the way: Meta Platforms (ex Facebook) and other US stocks can even be traded on finanzen.net ZERO until 11 p.m. (without order fees, plus spreads). Open a depot now for free and secure a new customer bonus!
Selected leverage products on Meta Platforms (ex Facebook)
With knock-outs, speculative investors can participate disproportionately in price movements. Simply select the lever you want and we will show you suitable open-end products on Meta Platforms (ex Facebook)
The leverage must be between 2 and 20
Advertising