Meta to be tried in antitrust case – Technology News
A federal judge in the US accepted Meta’s arguments that some of its restrictions on the Facebook platform had legitimate business justifications.
However, the judge rejected the defense that the company’s acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp was “good for consumers and not an attempt to dominate the personal social network market” and decided that Meta should be tried in the antitrust case filed by the FTC.
In the federal judge’s decision, it was noted that the hearing date would be determined at the meeting with the parties this month.
In his assessment of the issue, the Meta spokesperson stated that they are confident that the evidence will show that the acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp is good for competition and consumers.
The FTC spokesperson also pointed out the importance of the case to limit Meta’s monopoly power and restore competition in the social media ecosystem.
META REQUESTED THE CASE TO BE DROPPED
The Commission filed a lawsuit in 2020, alleging that Meta acted illegally to maintain the company’s monopoly on social media when it bought Instagram for $1 billion in 2012 and WhatsApp for $19 billion in 2014.
The FTC claimed that Meta overpaid for the applications in question.
Meta asked a federal judge in April to dismiss the FTC’s lawsuit without a hearing.
WHAT DOES ANTITRUST MEAN?
The Sherman Antitrust Act is an antitrust law in the United States that was passed by Congress under the chairmanship of Benjamin Harrison in 1890 and regulates competition between enterprises. It is named after Ohio Senator John Sherman, who was the first author of the bill.
The Sherman Act generally prohibits anticompetitive agreements and unilateral conduct that monopolizes or attempts to monopolize the relevant market. While the Ministry of Justice is authorized to initiate legal action in order to prohibit behavior that violates the law, parties damaged by illegal behavior are given the right to file a lawsuit for compensation up to three times the cost caused by the damage.
Over time, federal courts developed a body of legislation under the Sherman Act that makes certain types of anticompetitive conduct illegal per se and makes other types of conduct subject to case-by-case evaluations of whether the conduct reasonably restrains trade.
*The visual of the news was provided by AA.
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