A district judge in Washington granted a request from the social media giant and rejected requests from the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys in December.
The Federal Trade Commission alleges that Facebook illegally abused its power by acquiring competitors like Instagram and WhatsApp to avoid competition in the future. The lawsuit aims to protect and maintain the competitiveness of the community sector and force Facebook to sell the companies. They also want to prevent Facebook from making acquisitions worth more than tens of millions of dollars in the future without the knowledge of the countries involved in the lawsuit.
According to the judge, the FTC’s request was “legally insufficient” because there was no substantiated argument to support Facebook’s monopolistic efforts.
The judge dismissed the entire 46-state case on the grounds that prosecutors had waited too long to file it, especially after the acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp in 2012 and 2014.
After the decision, Facebook said it was happy
Today’s decisions acknowledge the shortcomings of the complaints filed against Facebook. We compete fairly every day to win people’s time and attention, and we will continue to provide excellent products to those who use our services.
A statement from an FTC spokesperson revealed that the decision will be carefully scrutinized and the best solution sought.
The New York attorney general led the lawsuit against Facebook and represented the participating states. His office also responded that they are also studying their options and looking for the best solution to the matter.
Following the court ruling, Facebook shares were launched and paper prices rose more than four percent in Monday afternoon trading. As a result, for the first time in its history, the company was valued at more than one thousand billion dollars.
The judge gave thirty days to file the amended applications.
