Meta has scored an important victory, winning the antitrust case brought against it by a coalition of state attorneys general.
Some 48 states and territories sued Meta in an effort to roll back the company’s largest acquisitions, such as Instagram and WhatsApp. The judge in the original case dismissed the lawsuit, saying the plaintiffs “failed to plead enough facts to plausibly establish a necessary element… that Facebook has monopoly power in the market for personal social networking services.”
According to TechCrunch, the appeals court has also ruled in favor of Meta, saying the states’ case was “not only odd, but old.” The court also countered the states’ claims that Meta’s actions had hurt innovation, saying the lawsuit “concerns an industry that, even on the States’ allegations, has had rapid growth and innovation with no end in sight.”
As TC points out, the FTC, which was involved in the original suit, was allowed to amend its case by the lower court. As a result, its case can continue moving forward. In its statement welcoming its win over the states, Meta vowed to continue fighting the FTC’s claims.
“As the Court of Appeals rightly recognized, this case fundamentally mischaracterized the vibrant competitive ecosystem in which we operate,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement. “In affirming the dismissal of this case, the court noted that this enforcement action was ‘odd’ because we compete in an industry that is experiencing ‘rapid growth and innovation with no end in sight.’ Moving forward, Meta will defend itself vigorously against the FTC’s distortion of antitrust laws and attacks on an American success story that are contrary to the interests of people and businesses who value our services,” they added.
