Critics of Big Tech market power got a preview of the long slog likely ahead in US courts after a federal judge this week dismissed anti-trust lawsuits against Facebook
Critics of Big Tech market power got a preview of the long slog likely ahead in US courts after a federal judge this week dismissed anti-trust lawsuits against Facebook by the Federal Trade Commission and a phalanx of state attorneys general, landing a blow to regulators hoping to rein in the world's largest social networking platform.
Facebook counts 3.45 billion monthly active users across its family of products - Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and/or WhatsApp - as per its first-quarter data for 2021.
In a 53-page opinion, US District Judge James Boasberg ruled that the lawsuits were "legally insufficient" and did not provide enough evidence to prove that Facebook was a monopoly.
"Although the Court does not agree with all of Facebook's contentions here, it ultimately concurs that the agency's Complaint is legally insufficient and must therefore be dismissed," he wrote.
The ruling goes on to say that the FTC has failed to "plausibly establish" that Facebook has monopoly power.
"The Complaint contains nothing on that score save the naked allegation that the company has had and still has a "dominant share of that market (in excess of 60 per cent)".
"The FTC's Complaint says almost nothing concrete on the key question of how much power Facebook actually had, and still has, in a properly defined antitrust product market," the ruling reads.
"It is almost as if the agency expects the Court to simply nod to the conventional wisdom that Facebook is a monopolist."
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