Category: Entertainment

ebook Inc. won a court ruling dismissing two monopoly lawsuits filed by the U.S. government and a coalition of states that sought to break up the company, dealing a blow to the effort of antitrust officials to take on the biggest tech platforms.

The decision by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington on Monday sent Facebook shares soaring, pushing the company’s market value to more than $1 trillion.

Boasberg granted the company’s request to dismiss the complaints filed last year by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general led by New York, saying in his opinion that the FTC failed to meet the burden for establishing that Facebook has a monopoly in social networking.

The judge said the FTC failed to clearly define the market and said its assertion about Facebook’s share of the market was “too speculative and conclusory to go forward.” He said the agency could refile the complaint within 30 days.

“Although the court does not agree with all of Facebook’s contentions here, it ultimately concurs that the agency’s complaint is legally insufficient and must therefore be dismissed,” Boasberg wrote.

Facebook shares gained as much as 4.9%, the most since April 29. The shares have advanced 30% this year.

“We are pleased that today’s decisions recognize the defects in the government complaints filed against Facebook,” said a company spokesman.

With the ruling, Facebook has escaped — at least for now — the most significant regulatory threat to its business to emerge out of the wider crackdown on U.S. technology giants. The FTC didn’t immediately comment on the decision. The New York Attorney General’s Office said it’s reviewing the decision and considering its legal options.

The ruling delivers a blow to the FTC and the states, which claimed Facebook violated antitrust laws by buying photo-sharing app Instagram and messaging service WhatsApp in order to cut off emerging competitive threats and protect its monopoly.

It also puts new emphasis on antitrust legislation advanced by the House Judiciary Committee last week that would make it easier for enforcers to challenge anticompetitive conduct by the biggest tech platforms.

Boasberg’s decision to toss the Facebook complaints shows the hurdles U.S. antitrust enforcers face in trying to take on the internet giants. Officials on their own can’t break up companies or impose other remedies, but instead must persuade judges to take action. The process can take years.

In a separate opinion about the states’ lawsuit, the judge criticized the attorneys general for waiting years after the Instagram and WhatsApp deals to challenges the acquisitions.

“The states’ long delays were unreasonable and unjustified as a matter of law,” Boasberg said. “Both acquisitions were, per plaintiffs’ allegations, publicly announced, and the states were thus aware or certainly should have been aware of them from those points onward.”

The Facebook lawsuits were filed in December as part of a widening crackdown on America’s tech giants. The cases followed a Justice Department complaint against Alphabet Inc. for allegedly monopolizing internet search, and the findings of a House investigation that accused tech companies of abusing their dominance. Lawmakers have since proposed a pile of bills that would cast a broad regulatory net over the companies.

Facebook Inc. won a court ruling dismissing two monopoly lawsuits filed by the U.S. government and a coalition of states that sought to break up the company, dealing a blow to the effort of antitrust officials to take on the biggest tech platforms.