Meta faces April trial in FTC case seeking to unwind Instagram merger

Meta will face trial in April over the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s allegations that the social media platform bought Instagram and WhatsApp to crush emerging competition.

Facebook owner Meta Platforms will face trial in April over the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's allegations that the social media platform bought Instagram and WhatsApp to crush emerging competition, a judge in Washington said on Monday.

The FTC sued in 2020, during the Trump administration, alleging the company acted illegally to maintain a monopoly on personal social networks. Meta, then known as Facebook, overpaid for Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014 to eliminate nascent threats instead of competing on its own in the mobile ecosystem, the FTC claims.

Judge James Boasberg set trial in the case for April 14.

Boasberg earlier this month rejected Meta's argument that the case should be dismissed as it depends on an overly narrow view of social media markets. The lawsuit does not account for competition from ByteDance's TikTok, Alphabet's YouTube, X, and Microsoft's LinkedIn, Meta had argued.

Boasberg said that while the case should go forward to trial, "time and technological change pose serious challenges" to the FTC's market definition.

"The Commission faces hard questions about whether its claims can hold up in the crucible of trial. Indeed, its positions at times strain this country's creaking antitrust precedents to their limits," the judge said in the November 13 ruling.