
Facebook says the antitrust lawsuits targeting the company’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp ought to be dismissed. The business issued its first official reaction to antitrust charges from the Federal Trade Commission and 46 state attorneys general, saying that the national government was seeking a “do-over. ” Facebook filed motions to dismiss both full cases.
In a statement, the ongoing company said neither lawsuit had made a credible case for antitrust. “Antitrust laws are designed to promote protect and competition consumers,” Facebook wrote. “These complaints usually do not declare that our conduct harmed either credibly.” The response comes 90 days following the company was hit with antitrust charges from the FTC and hawaii attorneys general.
Both cases allege that Facebook has engaged in anti-competitive behavior and that its deals to obtain Instagram and WhatsApp were designed to neutralize companies it saw as a threat. Facebook said this amounted to a do-over as both acquisitions were scrutinized, and approved, by the FTC years back.
In a fresh court filing, Facebook’s lawyers say that the FTC “have not alleged facts amounting to a plausible antitrust case,” and that the charges come amid a “fraught environment of relentless criticism of Facebook for matters entirely unrelated to antitrust concerns.” Concerning the full case from state AGs, Facebook says that the states “lack standing to create the case” and they “waited much too long to do something.” In its motion to dismiss the constant state charges, Facebook described the states’ case as “afterthought claims.”
Along with its acquisitions, both cases pointed to Facebook’s platform policies also, and how it treated third-party developers. The constant state case and the FTC lawsuit both called out Facebook’s treatment of Twitter-owned Vine, which saw its usage of Facebook’s API take off in 2013 in a choice that has been approved by Mark Zuckerberg. In its motion to dismiss the FTC case, Facebook lawyers said the ongoing company “had no duty to create its platform open to any app.”
until April to react to Facebook’s motions to dismiss
The FTC and hawaii AGs have. As The Wall Street Journal highlights, actually obtaining the charges dismissed before an effort requires Facebook to “meet a higher legal standard” which may be difficult to clear. If it did even, a dismissal will be the end of Facebook’s antitrust woes hardly. The ongoing company can be facing an antitrust investigation from Congress and regulators in europe.