"A yearslong fight between the Federal Trade Commission and Meta, which dates back to when it was still called Facebook, has ended with Meta prevailing, and a federal judge declaring that the company likely does not hold a monopoly in the social media sphere anymore."
""continue[d] to insist that Meta competes with the same old rivals it has for the last decade, that the company holds a monopoly among that small set, and that it maintained that monopoly through anticompetitive acquisitions.""
""Whether or not Meta enjoyed monopoly power in the past, though, the agency must show that it continues to hold such power now," Judge Boasberg said. "The Court's verdict today determines that the FTC has not done so.""
US District Judge James Boasberg ruled that Meta likely does not hold a monopoly in the social media sphere, finding the FTC failed to show continuing monopoly power. The lawsuit stemmed from Facebook's earlier acquisitions of Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014 and sought to unwind those deals as anticompetitive. By the April 2025 trial, rivals such as Twitter, Snapchat, YouTube, and TikTok had reshaped online content sharing and competitive dynamics. Boasberg noted the FTC relied on a decade-old view of competitors and did not demonstrate that Meta still maintained monopoly power now.
Read at sfist.com
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