Shortly after Mark Zuckerberg Participate in the founding of Facebook in Harvard’s bedroom In 2004, the social network rose in popularity. Almost a decade after, the company witnessed another round of explosive growth after purchasing its smaller competitors Instagram and WhatsAppEnhancing its place on social media.
on monday, Judge James Pasperg From the American boycott court for a Colombia Province, you will start thinking about a historical monopoly case related to the company-which is now called meta-which depends on a new legal question: Did the law break to remain dominant by obtaining startups that were on their way?
The case – Federal Trade Committee against definition platforms For the first time, you will try to extend the theories of the anti -monopoly law in the United States to include what the organizers call a “purchase or burial” strategy. Meta broke the law by obtaining emerging competitors to maintain its monopoly in social networks, as it argues FTC. Organizers seek to force Meta to strip Instagram and WhatsApp.
Meta replied as a wide competition on social media from Tiktok, Snap, Reddit and LinkedIn, and that the organizers agreed to acquisitions at that time. Also, the company did not abandon the settlement of the case: early this month, Mr. Zuckerberg was at the White House To try to persuade the Trump administration To avoid experience.
The result of what is expected to be a multiple -weekly trial, the first major trial technical case by the Trump administration, can reshape the American monopoly scene as companies face intense scrutiny on integration and acquisitions. Government victory can also have the effects of ripples on the Silicon Valley, as the bank of startups on profitable acquisitions by major companies for batches.
However, FTC faces an arduous battle to prove its case. The government’s legal argument depends on showing that dead will not be dominant, and will not remain dominant, if you do not get Instagram and WhatsApp – a virtual position that is difficult to prove because many factors have played in the company’s growth.
“This is a critical test issue about whether anti -monopoly laws can be used to relax on the integrations designed to eliminate competition in the growth phase,” said Jin Kimilman, a former former official in the Anti -Justice Department of Justice. “Winning the government would give consumers more options and opportunities to switch through social media platforms without having to be on Facebook.”
The lawsuit has the support of the two parties and is part of the most aggressive effort by federal organizers since the era of sect, while facing Google, Meta, Amazon and Apple questions about their strength to control consumer shopping methods and find information and communication.
The Ministry of Justice last year He won the pretext of fighting monopoly against Google For online monopoly, an experience to determine how to treat this monopoly is scheduled to start on April 21. Google is also Waiting for the judge’s decision In a separate trial on allegations that it has been legalized illegally in the advertising technology market.
The Ministry of Justice also filed a lawsuit Apple on the claims Its tightly coherent system for devices and programs makes it difficult for consumers to leave. And FTC has A lawsuit against AmazonAccusing illegal protection of a monopoly on retail online. These cases are expected to go to the trial next year.
You see the technology industry closely the Meta experience, which is one of the first main signals about how President Trump can strongly curb the strongest technology companies. The case arose under his first administration, before delivery in 2021 to the FTC chair Lina Khan, Biden, who drew attention to her endeavor to dismantle technology monopolies.
now Andrew Ferguson, Mr. Trump chose to lead the agency, took the stick. He has warned against the concentrated authority that is kept dead. It is also driven by a joint Republican opinion that technology platforms are subject to content control, especially conservative voices.
Mr. Ferguson said: “We are not intended to take off our feet of gas,” said Mr. Ferguson. In an interview Last month with Bloomberg.
For Meta, even the idea of Instagram and WhatsApp is anxious. Instagram bought for a billion dollars in 2012 and WhatsApp for $ 19 billion in 2014. At the time of deals, the applications were small – Instagram had only 30 million users and 13 employees, while WhatsApp had 450 million users and 50 employees. Since then, both have become very important to reach, as users grow faster than Facebook.
The trial is expected to appear about seven hours of certificates from Mr. Zuckerberg, who will be a star, along with a large former operational official in Meta, Sherrill Sandberg, Instagram and WhatsApp founders.
Meta has an army of the most expensive and experienced experience in his defense, led by Mark C Hansen, partner in Kelog, Hansen, Todd, Phil and Frederick. Meta plans to say that the rapid height of the TIKTOK video sharing site, in particular, shows healthy competition in the market.
“We are confident that the evidence in the trial will show that Instagram and WhatsApp were good to compete and consumers,” said Meta spokesman Chris. “The committee continues a mistake to confirm that there is no truly final deal, and companies can be punished for innovation.”
FTC filed a lawsuit against Meta in December 2020, along with a similar lawsuit filed by 46 states. The agency’s legal argument depends on Section 2 of Sherman’s Anti -monopoly Act of 1890, which determines that it is illegal to maintain monopoly using anti -competition practices – in this case, obtaining companies for a installment as a strategy to eliminate them as competitors.
To support its case, FTC plans to present a 2008 email message from Mr. Zuckerberg, saying: “It is better to buy from competition” and the 2012 memo wrote that his motives for the purchase of Instagram were “neutral.[izing] A possible competitor. “
Judge Boasberg, who was imprisoned in a controversial court battle with the Trump administration for using a strong wartime law to deport Venezuelan immigrants, will decide the case. During a pre -trial educational program, the judge said he had never had a personal account on Facebook or Instagram.
Judge Boasberg rejected the initial case of FTC in June 2021, saying that the agency needs to provide stronger definitions of the social media market and how Meta has become its monopoly. before A copy of the reformulation of the case in January 2022But he warned that she was far from a lack of peace.
In a ruling against Meta’s proposal to reject the case last year, Judge Pasperj said that FTC “faces difficult questions about whether its claims could stand up to the crucible of the trial.”
He added: “In fact, its positions sometimes strive for the anti -monopoly precedents in this country to its borders.”
Legal experts say that the issue will be difficult to prove it because it depends on determining the intentions of the executives for more than a decade, during an entirely different internet era. Dealms have been approved by the organizers at the time, and years of integration between applications means that they share many internal systems and data themselves – making a challenge to separation.
“The judge is required to decide whether dead is trying to kill competition or lucky and take a good bet,” said Jennifer Hodliston, an older colleague at the Kato Institute, a research center. “We cannot know it.”
