The long-awaited antitrust trial between Meta and the Federal Trade Commission kicked off on April 14th. Over about two months, DC District Court Chief Judge James Boasberg is listening to arguments about whether or not then-Facebook illegally monopolized the marketplace for “private social networking providers” by way of its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp.
The FTC first introduced the case in late 2020. While 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 part of the trial will assist the decide decide if Meta is accountable for breaking antitrust legislation. If he finds that to be true, he’ll later rule on how these harms must be remedied. The FTC is pushing for Instagram and WhatsApp must be spun off.
This is the third US trial searching for to interrupt up Big Tech lately, following the Justice Department’s two separate circumstances in opposition to Google over its search and advert tech companies.
Read under for all of our updates on the FTC v. Meta case.
