Judge dismisses state, federal antitrust suits against Facebook

A judge said that the US Federal Trade Commission failed to meet the burden for establishing that Facebook has a monopoly in social networking.

Facebook Inc. won the dismissal of two antitrust cases filed by the federal government and a coalition of states when a judge threw out the lawsuits. Shares of the social-media platform rose. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington on Monday granted Facebook’s request to dismiss the complaints, filed last year by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general led by New York’s Letitia James. The judge said in the opinion that the FTC failed to meet the burden for establishing that Facebook has a monopoly in social networking. He said the agency could refile the complaint within 30 days.