The long-awaited antitrust trial between Meta and the Federal Commerce Fee kicked off on April 14th. Over about two months, DC District Court docket Chief Choose James Boasberg is listening to arguments about whether or not then-Fb illegally monopolized the marketplace for “private social networking companies” via its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp.
The FTC first introduced the case in late 2020. Whereas it was initially thrown out by the decide, he let an amended model transfer ahead after the federal government beefed up particulars about why it thinks Meta is a monopoly. This section of the trial will assist the decide decide if Meta is accountable for breaking antitrust regulation. If he finds that to be true, he’ll later rule on how these harms ought to be remedied. The FTC is pushing for Instagram and WhatsApp ought to be spun off.
That is the third US trial looking for to interrupt up Massive Tech in recent times, following the Justice Division’s two separate instances in opposition to Google over its search and advert tech companies.
Learn beneath for all of our updates on the FTC v. Meta case.