A US judge dismissed federal and state antitrust complaints against Facebook that sought to force the social media company to sell Instagram and WhatsApp, saying the federal complaint was “legally inadequate”.
Facebook shares rose more than four percent after the verdict. The stock price surge brought Facebook’s market cap over $ 1 trillion for the first time.
The sacking marked the first major blow to state and federal lawsuits against big tech firms last year to curb alleged abuse of their massive market power.
Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said the FTC had failed to demonstrate that Facebook had monopoly power in the social networking market, but said the FTC had until July 29 to file a new complaint.
He also dismissed a lawsuit filed by several U.S. states, saying they waited too long to challenge the 2012 and 2014 acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp, respectively.
The judge did not ask states to resubmit their complaint.
A spokesman for the New York attorney general said it was “considering our legal options.”
Facebook had moved the lawsuits to be dismissed.
Regarding the FTC lawsuit, the judge wrote: “Although the court does not agree with all of Facebook’s allegations, it ultimately agrees that the agency’s complaint is legally inadequate and must therefore be dismissed.”
A Facebook spokesperson said, “We are pleased that today’s decisions recognize the shortcomings of the government complaints filed against Facebook.”
An FTC spokesman said the agency would “carefully review the opinion and evaluate the best option for the future.”
A ray of hope for the FTC in the statement was the judge’s testimony that the agency “stood on firmer ground in considering the takeovers of Instagram and WhatsApp, as the court rejects Facebook’s argument that the FTC has no authority to take action against them To obtain injunctive relief purchases ”.
The FTC and a large group of states filed separate lawsuits last year accusing Facebook of violating antitrust laws to keep smaller competitors at bay by using rivals like Instagram for $ 1 billion and WhatsApp for Snapped $ 19 billion.
Last year, the federal and state governments filed a total of five lawsuits against Facebook and Google after they were outraged in non-partisan ways about their clout in social media in business and politics.
The judge said the FTC did not sufficiently substantiate its claim that Facebook had more than 60 percent of the market.
However, Boasberg said the agency might be able to fix the problem by submitting it again.
The judge also criticized parts of the FTC’s case for their refusal to allow interoperability permissions with competing apps.
Republican Senator Josh Hawley criticized the court’s decision on the FTC lawsuit as “deeply disappointing.”
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