{"id":30318,"date":"2023-04-27T21:51:08","date_gmt":"2023-04-27T21:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2023\/04\/27\/appeals-court-rules-in-favor-of-meta-in-antitrust-case-from-state-ags\/"},"modified":"2023-04-27T21:51:13","modified_gmt":"2023-04-27T21:51:13","slug":"appeals-court-rules-in-favor-of-meta-in-antitrust-case-from-state-ags","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2023\/04\/27\/appeals-court-rules-in-favor-of-meta-in-antitrust-case-from-state-ags\/","title":{"rendered":"Appeals court rules in favor of Meta in antitrust case from State AGs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source:https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2023\/04\/27\/appeals-court-rules-in-favor-of-meta-in-antitrust-case-from-state-ags\/<\/a><\/br>
\nAppeals court rules in favor of Meta in antitrust case from State AGs<\/br>
\n2023-04-27 21:51:08<\/br><\/p>\n

\n

Meta has won an antitrust lawsuit, under appeal, that pitted the tech giant against dozens of state attorneys general, led by New York. The States alleged Meta had illegally maintained monopoly power in the social networking market through its acquisitions of photo-sharing app Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014, and that it gained further power through data policies that harmed app developers.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the Court of Appeals rightly recognized, this case fundamentally mischaracterized the vibrant competitive ecosystem in which we operate,\u201d a Meta spokesperson said, in a statement on the ruling. \u201cIn affirming the dismissal of this case, the court noted that this enforcement action was \u2018odd\u2019 because we compete in an industry that is experiencing \u2018rapid growth and innovation with no end in sight.\u2019 Moving forward, Meta will defend itself vigorously against the FTC\u2019s distortion of antitrust laws and attacks on an American success story that are contrary to the interests of people and businesses who value our services,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n

The plaintiffs, which included the attorneys general from 48 U.S. states and territories, had first sued Meta in December 2020, but a federal court dismissed their case in 2021<\/a>, as well as a parallel case by the Federal Trade Commission, which could have ultimately resulted in Meta being required to divest of Instagram and WhatsApp. The states appealed the ruling<\/a> in January 2022, arguing that the district court judge had wrongly terminated their case.<\/p>\n

U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg had ruled that states had waited too long to challenge Meta\u2019s acquisitions and that the policies they had cited were not illegal under antitrust law. The states, however, believed that their unprecedented delay to file \u201cdoes not apply against sovereign states suing to protect the public interest, like the states here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The states also believed the policies could violate antitrust law, so they appealed the case.<\/p>\n

The lower court had additionally granted the FTC leave to amend its complaint, allowing its case to proceed<\/a>, as was reported last year.<\/p>\n

In terms of the states\u2019 case, however, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has now upheld the district court\u2019s ruling, calling the states\u2019 lawsuit \u201cnot only odd, but old.\u201d<\/p>\n

The court\u2019s opinion further explains that the suit \u201cconcerns an industry that, even on the States\u2019 allegations, has had rapid growth and innovation with no end in sight.\u201d<\/p>\n

It then explains that as \u201csovereigns,\u201d the states aren\u2019t able to argue for an injunction under antitrust laws, because to be entitled to do so, they must be a \u201cperson, firm, corporation or association,\u201d which they are not.<\/p>\n

The court also agreed with Judge Boasberg\u2019s, decision that the States \u201cunduly delayed\u201d to file their suit. Facebook, (now Meta), had first acquired Instagram and WhatsApp in 2012 and 2014, respectively, but the lawsuit wasn\u2019t filed until December 2020.<\/p>\n

The district court had ruled that the long delays were \u201cunreasonable and unjustified as a matter of law,\u201d citing a four-year statute of limitations from other antitrust cases on other circuits as a guideline. The court also pointed out the acquisitions were well-publicized and went through lengthy, publicly reported FTC investigations to determine if they violated antitrust laws at the time.<\/p>\n

The appeals court also agreed with Judge Boasberg\u2019s opinion regarding Facebook\u2019s Platform and its practices and policies. The States had cited snippets of Facebook policies from 2011 and 2013, which the court said were \u201caccurate, but the messages they seek to convey are not\u201d \u2014 meaning, they didn\u2019t make a case for antitrust law violations.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026we agree again with Judge Boasberg\u2019s comprehensive and well-reasoned opinion determining that the States\u2019 Platform-based allegations failed to state a cause of action,\u201d the new opinion issued today states.<\/p>\n

It also agreed that the district court was correct that the States\u2019 \u201cexclusive dealing\u201d theory fails as a matter of law, as it only limited apps on Facebook but left app developers free to develop applications for Facebook competitors.<\/p>\n

On other matters, the lateness of the lawsuit impacted the States\u2019 ability to make its case, as it wanted injunctive relief for a policy that ended in 2018, giving Facebook platform access to companies that have long since shut down or pivoted their business.<\/p>\n

\u201cInjunctive relief would be unwarranted even if the States could prove their allegations,\u201d the court noted.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/br><\/br><\/br><\/p>\n

Science, Tech, Technology<\/br>
\n<\/br>
\nSource:https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2023\/04\/27\/appeals-court-rules-in-favor-of-meta-in-antitrust-case-from-state-ags\/<\/a><\/br><\/br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source:https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2023\/04\/27\/appeals-court-rules-in-favor-of-meta-in-antitrust-case-from-state-ags\/ Appeals court rules in favor of Meta in antitrust case from State AGs 2023-04-27 21:51:08 Meta has won an antitrust lawsuit, under appeal, that pitted the tech giant against dozens of state attorneys general, led by New York. The States alleged Meta had illegally maintained monopoly power in the social networking market through its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30319,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,17,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science","category-tech","category-technology"],"yoast_head":"\nAppeals court rules in favor of Meta in antitrust case from State AGs - Science and Nerds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2023\/04\/27\/appeals-court-rules-in-favor-of-meta-in-antitrust-case-from-state-ags\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Appeals court rules in favor of Meta in antitrust case from State AGs - Science and Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Source:https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2023\/04\/27\/appeals-court-rules-in-favor-of-meta-in-antitrust-case-from-state-ags\/ Appeals court rules in favor of Meta in antitrust case from State AGs 2023-04-27 21:51:08 Meta has won an antitrust lawsuit, under appeal, that pitted the tech giant against dozens of state attorneys general, led by New York. 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