Social media giant Meta has won a major monopoly lawsuit in the United States. A judge in Washington ruled that the acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp did not violate US competition rules.
This allows Meta to avoid a potential forced breakup, something regulators had been seeking. The case was brought by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which filed charges against the tech giant, then known as Facebook, in 2020, during President Donald Trump’s first term.
In it, the competition authority accused Meta/Facebook of stifling competition by acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp for substantial sums. According to the watchdog, these acquisitions in 2012 and 2014 were illegal actions intended to protect Facebook’s monopoly on the social media market.
But the judge in Washington ruled that the deals did not violate US law. According to the judge, the FTC failed to prove that the deals enabled the company to illegally create a monopoly.
The ruling appears to be a major defeat for the federal government. Had the judge upheld the charges, Meta might have been forced to split. Before the trial began, Meta stated that “the evidence at trial will demonstrate that the acquisitions were good for competition and for consumers.”
Meta – then still Facebook – acquired Instagram in 2012 for $1 billion. In 2014, it paid $22 billion for WhatsApp. US antitrust authorities had approved the acquisitions at the time.
