Facebook filed motions Wednesday to dismiss antitrust lawsuits brought by the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general, rebutting claims that it has crushed competition in the social media industry and hurt consumers.
The trade commission in December sued Facebook, calling on a federal court to break the social media giant apart from the WhatsApp and Instagram apps, on the same day 48 states and territories filed a separate lawsuit alleging the Big Tech giant engages in illegal, anti-competitive conduct that runs afoul of antitrust laws.
Facebook said that the lawsuits “do not credibly claim that our conduct harmed” competition in the social media industry or consumers. Furthermore, the social media giant alleges that the lawsuits are an attempt to “do-over” acquisitions Facebook made in years past, such as its purchases of WhatsApp and Instagram, which the FTC approved.
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Facebook said its acquisitions were not anti-competitive and denied that it has monopoly power in the industry, given that its “products are offered for free and in unlimited quantities.”
The complaints from the FTC and state attorneys general state that Facebook has behaved in a monopolistic manner by choosing, on multiple occasions, to acquire an emerging threat rather than compete.
The trade commission in December filed a 53-page complaint with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, where it asked the court to declare that Facebook’s conduct violates laws against unfair competition and order the company to divest its largest acquisitions or to reconstruct its business, including its $1 billion purchase of the photo and video-sharing app Instagram in 2012 and its nearly $15 billion purchase of the messaging service WhatsApp in 2014.
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Separately, a bipartisan coalition of 48 state attorneys general in December also filed a lawsuit to end the “illegal monopoly” created by Facebook and asked the court to find that Facebook’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp were in violation of federal antitrust laws.
