A court in the US has ordered technology company Meta to face trial in a lawsuit filed by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC). In the lawsuit, the commission has taken the position that the company bought Instagram and WhatsApp to crush emerging competition on social media.
According to a foreign news agency, Judge James Boasberg rejected Meta’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit filed against Facebook in 2020 (during the Trump administration), which argued that the company acted against the law by buying Instagram and WhatsApp to maintain a monopoly on the social network.
The FTC alleges that Meta (then known as Facebook) sought to eliminate emerging challenges in the mobile ecosystem by buying Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014 for more than their value.
Judge Boasberg upheld the commission’s monopoly claim but rejected Facebook’s accusation that the platform only allows third-party app developers access to the platform if they agree not to compete with the company’s core services.
The court has not announced a trial date.
