Big Law
Federal Courts Dismiss an FTC Monopoly Lawsuit Against Facebook
A D.C. federal court on Monday dismissed antitrust suits by the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general seeking to break up Facebook’s social networking monopoly, dealing a massive blow to regulators’ attempt to rein in Silicon Valley’s giants.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg sent Facebook’s stock market value surging past $1 trillion, while generating new calls in Congress for rewriting the nation’s antitrust laws to better address monopolistic abuses in the online world.
Boasberg’s decision also went to the heart of Washington’s court fights with Facebook and other huge tech platforms: As massive as they are, do they meet the legal definition of a monopoly?
