{"id":575792,"date":"2021-06-28T17:20:40","date_gmt":"2021-06-28T21:20:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=575792"},"modified":"2021-06-28T17:20:44","modified_gmt":"2021-06-28T21:20:44","slug":"in-huge-blow-to-antitrust-efforts-against-big-tech-federal-judge-dismisses-suits-against-facebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/in-huge-blow-to-antitrust-efforts-against-big-tech-federal-judge-dismisses-suits-against-facebook\/","title":{"rendered":"In Huge Blow To Antitrust Efforts Against Big Tech, Federal Judge Dismisses Suits Against Facebook"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fin-huge-blow-to-antitrust-efforts-against-big-tech-federal-judge-dismisses-suits-against-facebook%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=575792&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/GettyImages-961782190-e1624914871991.jpg?w=1200&#038;h=800&#038;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"  style=\"display:none\"><\/div>\n<p><span>In a massive blow to Congress\u2019 effort to rein in Big Tech, a federal judge threw out antitrust lawsuits leveled against Facebook by the Federal Trade Commission and more than 40 states.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In December 2020, both the Federal Trade Commission and 48 states accused Facebook of \u201cbuying up its rivals to illegally squash competition\u201d and \u201ccement its dominance over social media,\u201d according to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/12\/09\/technology\/facebook-antitrust-monopoly.html\"><span>The New York Times<\/span><\/a><span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>These lawsuits were built on the argument that Facebook\u2019s acquisition of Instagram in 2012 for $1 billion and WhatsApp in 2014 for $19 billion \u2014 in addition to other smaller companies \u2014 were part of the wider effort to achieve a monopoly.<\/p>\n<p><span>On Monday,<\/span><span>\u00a0James E. Boasberg for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said that the case needed to be dismissed because \u201ctoo much time had elapsed since the alleged offenses took place,\u201d explained <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/06\/28\/technology\/facebook-ftc-lawsuit.html\"><span>The New York Times<\/span><\/a><span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThe states, led by Letitia James, the New York attorney general, accused Facebook in December of buying up nascent competitors like Instagram and WhatsApp \u2014 deals made in 2012 and 2014 \u2014 to cement its monopoly over social networking,\u201d the report added. \u201cIn a separate, 53-page opinion, he said the complaint by the Federal Trade Commission, also filed in December, failed to provide enough facts to back its claims that Facebook had a monopoly over personal social networking.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cAlthough the Court does not agree with all of Facebook\u2019s contentions here, it ultimately concurs that the agency\u2019s Complaint is legally insufficient and must therefore be dismissed,\u201d the filing from U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia reads. \u201cThe FTC has failed to plead enough facts to plausibly establish a necessary element of all of its Section 2 claims \u2014 namely, that Facebook has monopoly power in the market for Personal Social Networking (PSN) Services.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThe Complaint is undoubtedly light on specific factual allegations regarding consumer-switching preferences,\u201d the court wrote. \u201cThese allegations \u2014 which do not even provide an estimated actual figure or range for Facebook\u2019s market share at any point over the past ten years \u2014 ultimately fall short of plausibly establishing that Facebook holds market power.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>As <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2021\/06\/28\/judge-dismisses-ftc-antitrust-complaint-against-facebook.html\"><span>CNBC<\/span><\/a><span> pointed out, the filing also noted that the FTC\u2019s complaint \u201c<\/span><span>seemed to assume that the court would agree Facebook is a monopoly.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThe FTC\u2019s 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,\u201d the filing reads. \u201cIt is almost as if the agency expects the Court to simply nod to the conventional wisdom that Facebook is a monopolist.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Facebook\u2019s stock price rose more than 4% following the news, \u201c<\/span><span>sending the social media company\u2019s market capitalization above <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2021\/06\/28\/facebook-hits-trillion-dollar-market-cap-for-first-time.html\"><span>$1 trillion<\/span><\/a><span> for the first time,\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cWe are pleased that today\u2019s decisions recognize the defects in the government complaints against Facebook,\u201d the Silicon Valley company said in a statement. \u201cWe compete fairly every day to earn people\u2019s time and attention and will continue to deliver great products for the people and businesses that use our services.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a<\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><i><span> member<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span>.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a massive blow to Congress\u2019 effort to rein in Big Tech, a federal judge threw out antitrust lawsuits leveled against Facebook by the Federal Trade Commission and more than &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2281565,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/GettyImages-961782190-e1624914871991.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"In Huge Blow To Antitrust Efforts Against Big Tech, Federal Judge Dismisses Suits Against Facebook","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-575792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/GettyImages-961782190-e1624914871991.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"In Huge Blow To Antitrust Efforts Against Big Tech, Federal Judge Dismisses Suits Against Facebook","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=575792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575792\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2281565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}