Washington – A US federal judge on Tuesday dismissed an antitrust lawsuit by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) against Meta, Facebook’s parent company, ruling that the technology giant is not in a situation of abuse of a dominant position.
The ruling represents a victory for the company after a five-year legal battle that began when the US agency sued Facebook for its acquisition of Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014.
Judge James Boasberg of the federal district court in Washington concluded that Meta faces enough competition from rivals TikTok and YouTube, preventing the company from exercising a monopoly in the social media market.
The FTC argued that Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat competed in a different market than video entertainment platforms such as TikTok and YouTube.
However, the judge found that that distinction does not apply to the current social media landscape.
“Meta has no monopoly on the market,” the judge declared, noting that Facebook and Instagram have transformed in recent years to primarily show users short videos recommended by algorithms, nearly identical to TikTok’s core offering.
The court found that Americans now spend only 17% of their time on Facebook viewing friends’ content, and that figure drops to just 7% on Instagram.
The ruling represents a setback for antitrust advocates in the United States, who have taken action against big tech companies in recent years, with mixed results in the courts.
The government has brought five major cases against tech companies: two against Google and lawsuits against Apple and Amazon.