Facebook owner Meta Platforms will face trial in April over US Federal Trade Commission allegations that the social media platform bought Instagram and WhatsApp to crush emerging competition, a judge in Washington said on Monday.
The FTC filed the lawsuit in 2020 during the Trump administration, alleging that the company acted illegally to maintain a monopoly on personal social networks. Meta, then known FacebookThe FTC claims it overpaid for Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014 to eliminate emerging threats rather than compete on its own in the mobile ecosystem.
Judge James Boasberg set the case for hearing on April 14.
Boasberg earlier this month rejected Meta’s argument that the case should be dismissed because it relies on an overly narrow view of social media markets. The lawsuit does not mention competition from ByteDance’s TikTok, Alphabet’s YouTube, Microsoft‘S LinkedinMeta argued.
Boasberg said that although the case should proceed to trial, “time and technological changes create serious challenges” to the FTC’s market definition.
“The Commission faces difficult questions about whether its claims can stand the test of time. Indeed, its position sometimes pushes this country’s crumbling antitrust precedents to their limits,” the judge said in the Nov. 13 decision.