Federal judge dismisses FTC antitrust suit against Facebook

A federal judge threw out an antitrust complaint against Facebook by the Federal Trade Commission, dealing a blow to US regulators’ efforts to clamp down on the Silicon Valley giant.

The FTC’s anti-monopoly complaint, filed in December on the same day that 46 states challenged Facebook in a separate suit, accused the company of of “illegal monopolization” resulting from “a years-long course of anticompetitive conduct.”

The lawsuit could have resulted in Facebook being forced to separate or sell Instagram and WhatsApp — acquisitions which some critics say were done to neutralize a growing threat of competition from the apps.

Facebook stock surged on Monday’s news, shooting up 4 percent from $343.80 at 2:45 p.m. to $357.60 less than an hour later, according to Marketwatch data. 

The FTC will have one month to file an amended compliant in order for the suit to proceed, Washington DC District Judge James E. Boasberg ruled, slamming the agency’s initial suit as “vague” and “too speculative” in an opinion published Monday afternoon.

“Although the court does not agree with all of Facebook’s contentions here, it ultimately concurs that the agency’s complaint is legally insufficient and must therefore be dismissed,” wrote Boasberg. 

The judge dismissed the case from the states attorneys general outright, ruling that they waited too long to file their claims.

Facebook and the FTC did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Protesters demonstrate against Facebook.
The development represents an early challenge for recently confirmed FTC chair and big tech foe Lina Khan.
Getty Images

The development represents an early challenge for FTC chair and big tech foe Lina Khan, who was sworn in less than two weeks ago. The agency will likely take Boasberg up on his offer and file a new complaint by July 28, said Herbert Hovenkamp, an antitrust expert and University of Pennsylvania law professor. 

“They can start from scratch and do whatever they want to do,” Hovenkamp told The Post. “This complaint is gone.”

The professor also said he found the judge’s move of dismissing the complaint but not the entire case unusual.

“The judge may have thought that there was something to the case but that the complaint was not very well drafted to state it,” Hovenkamp said. 

source: nypost.com