The FTC’s Zombie Antitrust Action Against Meta Continues to Lurch Forward
FTC v. Meta Platforms Inc. has gone to court, and trial is just underway in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) alleges that Meta is currently, in 2025, engaged in monopolization in violation of Section 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act by dint of having acquired Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014.
Quasi-spoiler alert: I’m going to discuss various aspects of the case, burdened by a nagging question: What’s the point of the FTC’s lawsuit? It’s a simple question, but I’m not sure I have a good answer. I have reviewed, among other things, the FTC’s December 2020 complaint; its August 2021 first amended complaint; its September 2021 substitute amended complaint; its pre-trial brief; and the slides submitted with its opening statement, and I’m still not sure why they brought the case.