The U.S. Federal Trade Commission said on Wednesday that a federal court must allow an antitrust lawsuit against Meta, formerly Facebook, to proceed because Meta has “interfered with the competitive process by targeting nascent threats through exclusionary conduct.”
The FTC refiled its antitrust case against Meta Platforms, adding details of allegations that Meta took over rivals to destroy competition and asking a judge to order the tech giant to sell Instagram and WhatsApp.
In a filing with the District Court of the District of Columbia, the FTC alleged that Facebook has had a market share of more than 70% over the last decade, well above the level required for a monopoly.
The FTC also argued that Facebook bought the photo-sharing app Instagram and the messaging app WhatsApp to maintain its monopoly.
The commission also alleges that Facebook was not justified in preventing chairwoman Lina Khan from voting to approve the re-filed complaint, on the grounds that it was originally filed before she was nominated to the FTC, and that it was the court, not the commission, that would decide the case.
Facebook argued that Khan harmed the complaint because of her previous work and continues to deny any wrongdoing.
“The FTC has once again brought a monopolization case without a monopolist. Its claims ignore the reality that people have more choices than ever before in how they share, connect, and communicate, and its second complaint should be dismissed just like the first,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement.