Photo: OLIVIER DOULIERY / / AFP / Getty Images
Two lawsuits filed against the social network Facebook for antitrust cases filed by the federal government of United States, were dismissed by a district judge in Washington.
The complaints were presented last year, in December, by the Commission Federal Trade (FTC) of the United States and by Attorneys General of 48 states led by Letitia James, from New York.
That Facebook has been freed from this lawsuit represents a blow to the 48 judges who brought the lawsuit and for the FTC. They accused Facebook of violating antitrust laws by buying the Instagram photo application and the WhatsApp messaging application .
The idea of all this was to impose regulatory standards on the social network.
The aforementioned accusation said that with the purchase of the other social network of photos, above all, Facebook eliminated threats from a potential competitor, while protecting its monopoly.
According to fans of the monopoly issue with this, James Boasberg, the federal judge who dismissed the lawsuit , becomes a sample of the obstacles that agents that protect the American antitrust law may encounter if they wish to attack any of the internet or social media giants.
But the argument that the judge gave that neither the FTC, nor the 48 prosecutors succeeded in proving their main argument, which was that Facebook owned the marketplace d e social networks in the United States.
For the court, insufficient data was provided to demonstrate and detail the power of Facebook in the social media market : “The demand is undoubtedly light in terms of the specific factual allegations about the exchange preferences of consumers,” he asserted.
After knowing the decision that rejects In the lawsuit against Facebook, the shares of the social media company rose more than 4% in a few hours, bringing Facebook’s market capitalization to over $ 1 trillion for the first time.
“We are pleased that today’s decisions acknowledge the flaws in the government’s complaints against Facebook,” the company said in a statement in which it made clear They compete cleanly every day to win users’ time and attention. So they will continue to offer great products.
Anyway, this is not the end of the case , if the FTC remedies those arguments that were considered weak, there could be an amendment in the lawsuit. This was confirmed by the same court.
For its part, it was learned by a spokesman for the Federal Trade Commission that they are reviewing the ruling and evaluating a better way to continue go ahead.
