US Antitrust Cases Against Facebook Dismissed By Judge

Judge James Boasberg of the US District Court of Washington, DC dismissed the case filed in December by the Federal Trade Commission and more than 40 states, which could have rolled back Facebook's acquisition of Instagram and the messaging platform WhatsApp.

A US judge on Monday dismissed the blockbuster antitrust action against Facebook filed last year by federal and state regulators, saying officials failed to "plausibly" establish that the social network had created a monopoly. Judge James Boasberg of the US District Court of Washington, DC dismissed the case filed in December by the Federal Trade Commission and more than 40 states, which could have rolled back Facebook's acquisition of Instagram and the messaging platform WhatsApp. The federal lawsuit "failed to plead enough facts to plausibly establish a necessary element... that Facebook has monopoly power in the market for personal social networking services," the judge said in a 53-page opinion, while allowing authorities the opportunity to refile the case. In lawsuits filed in December that were consolidated in federal court, US and state officials called for the divestment of Instagram and WhatsApp, arguing that Facebook had acted to "entrench and maintain its monopoly to deny consumers the benefits of competition."