Meta faces April trial in FTC case to overturn Instagram merger

Facebook owner Meta Platforms will go on trial in April over U.S. Federal Trade Commission allegations that the social media platform bought Instagram and WhatsApp to crush emerging competition, a judge in Washington said Monday.

The FTC filed a lawsuit in 2020, during the Trump administration, alleging that the company acted illegally to maintain a monopoly on personal social media. Meta, then known as Facebook, overpaid for Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014 to eliminate emerging threats instead of competing alone in the mobile ecosystem, the FTC claims.

Judge James Boasberg set the trial for April 14.

Boasberg earlier this month rejected Meta’s argument that the case should be dismissed because it depends on too narrow a view of social media markets. The lawsuit does not take into account competition from ByteDance’s TikTok, YouTube, Alphabet’s X and Microsoft’s LinkedIn, Meta had argued.

Boasberg said that while the case should go to trial, “time and technological evolution pose serious challenges” to the FTC’s market definition.

“The Commission faces difficult questions about whether its assertions can hold up in the crucible of trial. Indeed, its positions sometimes strain this country’s antitrust precedents,” the judge said in his November 13 ruling.