The Federal Trade Commission announced today it has elected to give another attempt in its antitrust lawsuit against Facebook, voting along party lines to file an amended complaint in D.C. federal court. Its initial version, along with a suit by state attorneys general, was tossed in late June.
Photo Credit: Shutterstock
The new FTC complaint aims to shore up the weaknesses that U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg said condemned the agency’s original accusations that Facebook has monopolized personal social networking. The complaint focuses especially on the tech giant’s past purchases of WhatsApp and Instagram that many enforcers want to undo.
Although the first case fell flat, the FTC now argues that “multiple metrics” demonstrate the company’s “dominant share,” including daily and monthly active users and time spent.
In the 80-page amended complaint, FTC staffers stated, “Individually and collectively, these metrics provide significant evidence of Facebook’s durable monopoly power in personal social networking services since at least 2011.”
The latest complaint means that Facebook must now fight enforcement actions both in D.C. federal court and the D.C. Circuit. The state’s attorneys general are currently seeking a revival of their suit that, which unlike the FTC’s complaint, was thrown out without leave to amend.
In their official announcement, the FTC claimed the new complaint “includes additional data and evidence to support the FTC’s contention that Facebook is a monopolist that abused its excessive market power to eliminate threats to its dominance.”
“The suit also provides new direct evidence that Facebook has the power to control prices or exclude competition; significantly reduce the quality of its offering to users without losing a significant number of users or a meaningful amount of user engagement; and exclude competition by driving actual or potential competitors out of business,” the FTC stated.
“As the case will be prosecuted before a federal judge, the appropriate constitutional due process protections will be provided to the company. The Office of the Secretary has dismissed the petition,” the FTC added.
The vote to file a new complaint saw the same 3-2 party division as the the initial lawsuit in December, although in that case the suit was supported by the FTC’s then chair, Republican Commissioner Joseph Simons. In a dissenting statement Thursday, Republican Commissioner Christine S. Wilson said her opposition is “premised on legal, factual, and policy concerns.”
“I believe it is bad policy to undermine the integrity of the premerger notification process established by Congress and the repose that it provides to merging parties that have faithfully complied with its requirements,” Wilson said.
Read more articles from Haute Lawyer, visit https://hauteliving.com/hautelawyer
Source: https://www.law360.com/articles/1414490/breaking-ftc-takes-another-shot-at-facebook-in-3-2-vote
