Facebook says it has filed motions to dismiss antitrust lawsuits brought by the FTC and state AGs, arguing its conduct did not harm competition or consumers
Action marks its first legal salvo since the FTC and 46 states sued the company in December — WASHINGTON— Facebook Inc …
Wall Street JournalBrent Kendall
Context & Ripple Effects
The motions are Facebook’s first procedural response to the December case brought by the FTC alongside 46 state attorneys general, Guam and DC, which alleged its Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions were used to stifle competition. Facebook had already called the enforcement theory “revisionist history” and unprecedented.
The filing marks the point at which the dispute shifted from accusations to the legal sufficiency of the agencies’ case. Later coverage shows the initial FTC complaint was dismissed before the agency submitted a new complaint, underscoring how consequential the pleading fight became.
First-order effects
Facebook immediately puts the FTC and state AGs to the task of showing that its conduct harmed competition or consumers, rather than merely defending the acquisitions on the merits.
The FTC and the state coalition face an early test of whether their allegations can survive dismissal and proceed into fuller litigation.
Second-order effects
A dismissal raises the burden on the FTC to refine its market-power and harm allegations, as its subsequent refiled complaint demonstrates.
The court’s treatment of the cases gives lawmakers evidence for their argument that existing antitrust law is difficult to apply to Facebook’s alleged conduct, strengthening calls to revise it.
Third-order effects
If major platform cases repeatedly turn on pleading and proof barriers, antitrust enforcement will increasingly depend on clearer statutory standards rather than case-by-case litigation theories.
The dispute points toward a more contested enforcement model in which platform acquisitions and market conduct draw coordinated federal and state challenges, but courts determine how far those challenges can reach.
The trend: US platform antitrust enforcement is moving toward coordinated federal-state cases whose durability depends on whether existing law can establish competitive harm.
NEW: Sen. Amy Klobuchar plans to hold multiple tech-related antitrust subcommittee hearings, including standalone hearings on app store policies and news publishing, she tells me. Other hearings will also cover consolidation in agriculture, cable, transportation, she says.
Klobuchar is set to chair the subcommittee's first hearing of the new Congress tomorrow, where she'll start building momentum for her bill seeking to update the antitrust laws. “We'll go through industry by industry what's happened,” she says.
Facebook is wrong on the law and wrong on our complaint. We are confident in our case, and we will continue to stand up for the millions of consumers and many small businesses that have been harmed by Facebook's unlawful behavior. https://www.wsj.com/...
It seems highly possible to me that the government's antitrust case against Facebook won't succeed. I wrote about what else lawmakers could and should do. https://www.platformer.news/ ... https://twitter.com/...
Our country faces a major monopoly power problem, and at tomorrow's hearing we will examine this problem's scope and the reforms necessary to correct it to build a strong economy that works for all Americans. https://www.klobuchar.senate.gov/ ...
...We will continue to stand up for the millions of consumers and many small businesses that have been harmed by Facebook's unlawful behavior." - @TishJames
@TishJames NY AG says: “Facebook is wrong on the law and wrong on our complaint. We are confident in our case, which is why almost every state in this nation has joined our bipartisan lawsuit to end Facebook's illegal conduct...
Please just read this sentence. Facebook, Facebook, Facebook. They've also claimed unsuccessfully DC AG doesn't have standing over its citizens and are currently arguing the entire nation of Canada doesn't over its citizens either! https://twitter.com/...
There are literally emails where Facebook communicates a strategy to restrict its developer platform and access to its personal data based on competitive threats. Including one where CEO explicitly calls for removing a competitor, “go for it.” https://twitter.com/...
I'll be shocked if this dismissal succeeds. Facebook could maybe argue that it didn't harm consumers, even though that sounds ridiculous when I actually write it out. But it's very hard for Facebook to argue that acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp had no impact on competition. http…
Remember when Zuckerberg said he'd “go to the mat and fight” any plans to break up Facebook? A motion to dismiss is expected procedure - but this is also FB publicly laying out their arguments at a time when Tim Wu/Lina Khan have just been hired by govt: https://about.fb.com/...
As expected, Facebook just filed to dismiss the U.S. antitrust lawsuits it is up against. “Antitrust laws are intended to promote competition and protect consumers. These complaints do not credibly claim that our conduct harmed either.” Long road ahead https://about.fb.com/...