Meta wins lawsuit, preserving the "gold mine" of Instagram and WhatsApp.

Judge Boasberg stated that the government lawyers' arguments were unconvincing in claiming that Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat constituted the so-called personal social media market.

A U.S. district court judge ruled on November 18th to dismiss the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) antitrust lawsuit against social media giant Meta.

In his ruling, Judge James Boasberg stated that the FTC had failed to prove that Meta's acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp was intended to eliminate competitors in the social media market.

Previously, the FTC had sought to force Meta to divest from both Instagram and WhatsApp, even though the same commission had approved these acquisitions in 2012 and 2014, respectively.

Judge Boasberg stated that the government lawyers' arguments were unconvincing in claiming that Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat constituted the so-called personal social media market.

Instead, the judge accepted Meta's argument that even if such a private social media marketplace had ever existed, it no longer does, and the company now has to compete with major rivals like TikTok and Google's YouTube.

In the ruling, Boasberg wrote that, given the constant rise and fall of apps, chasing fleeting trends and adding new features year after year, it is understandable why the FTC found it difficult to define the market boundaries of Meta's product.

The judge added that, despite this, the FTC insisted that Meta had only competed with established rivals over the past decade, that the company held a monopoly within that small group, and maintained this position through anti-competitive acquisitions.

However, he stressed that regardless of whether Meta ever held a monopoly in the past, the FTC must prove that the company still holds that power at the present time.

With this ruling, Meta has avoided the risk of losing Instagram – one of its most important revenue sources that helps it compete better with TikTok – and the tech giant is also not forced to split from WhatsApp, one of the world's leading messaging apps.

(VNA/Vietnam+)

Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/meta-thang-kien-bao-toan-mo-vang-instagram-and-whatsapp-post1077850.vnp