Meta, the owner of Facebook, is scheduled to go on trial next week in a historic antitrust case filed by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), charging the tech company with misusing its market power by buying Instagram and WhatsApp to stifle potential competition in the future.
The case, to be tried in a Washington federal court, is a severe setback to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg‘s expectations that Donald Trump’s possible return to the White House would relieve regulatory heat on Big Tech. In spite of repeated White House meetings and updated content policies friendly to Republicans by Zuckerberg’s lobbying, the case is proceeding as scheduled.
The FTC, charged by Chair Andrew Ferguson, wishes to compel Meta to sell off Instagram and WhatsApp, which became international platforms following their respective takeovers in 2012 and 2014. The regulator contends that the motive of Meta was to mute nascent dangers to Facebook’s supremacy, drawing on internal memo exchanges where Zuckerberg admitted Instagram’s potential as “really scary.
Meta will justify the acquisitions by stating that substantial investments changed both firms into their present profitable shapes. They will also point out that the FTC originally approved both transactions, and a reversal would be unfair.
Although a eleventh-hour White House intervention is technically possible, experts indicate that it’s unlikely. Cornell Law School professor George Hay explained that even if Trump were willing to reconsider the case, persuading both the President and the FTC that the suit has no merit would be a high hurdle to clear.
This is one of five prominent antitrust cases now aimed at Big Tech, with Apple, Amazon, and Google also facing scrutiny. The trial, projected to take at least eight weeks, will involve testimony from Zuckerberg, ex-COO Sheryl Sandberg, and executives at competing companies.
Judge James Boasberg previously cautioned that the FTC might struggle to establish its allegations under the strict trial circumstances.
