A federal judge has dismissed the FTC and state antitrust lawsuits against Facebook, before even starting their hearing. The district judge in Washington said the FTC suit was not sufficient to support its claims of illegal monopoly behaviour by Facebook, the Wall Street Journal reports. The FTC may refile an amended suit within 30 days.
The FTC filed its case in December, claiming Facebook was abusing its dominance in the social networking market. It was seeking remedies such as a forced separation of WhatsApp and Instagram from the company and changes in Facebook's conditions for developers. At the same time, the attorneys general of 48 states and territories of the US brought a similar suit alleging anti-competitive practices by Facebook.
US District Judge James Boasberg in Washington granted the social-media giant’s requests to dismiss both the lawsuits. The FTC had insufficient legal grounds, while the states had waited too long to bring their case, he said.
According to the judge, the FTC had failed to show Facebook had market power. There was only an allegation that Facebook held 60 percent of the social networking market, with no social networks of comparable scale in the US. Its exclusions on developers and app interoperability did not appear unlawful either, unless the FTC could show problems with how Facebook is applying the policies, the judge said. In the FTC's favour, the judge rejected Facebook's claim that the FTC could not go back on its original decisions to approve the takeovers of WhatsApp and Instagram.
An FTC spokeswoman said the commission would review the decision before deciding on further action. New York Attorney General Letitia James, who led the states’ lawsuit, was also still considering options.
Facebook said it was pleased that the decisions "recognize the defects" in the government complaints. "We compete fairly every day to earn people’s time and attention and will continue to deliver great products for the people and businesses that use our services."
Facebook's share price jumped after the ruling, taking the company's market capitalisation to over USD 1 trillion for the first time.
