US court rules in favour of Meta in long-running FTC antitrust battle

Meta has won its years-long antitrust battle with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), ending a protracted bid by the regulator to force the company to divest Instagram and WhatsApp. A federal judge ruled that Meta did not illegally suppress competition through its past acquisitions, effectively closing one of the most significant regulatory challenges faced by the firm.

The dispute dates back to 2020, when the FTC filed a lawsuit accusing Meta of maintaining an unlawful monopoly in social networking “through a years-long course of anticompetitive conduct”. Central to the complaint were Meta’s purchases of Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014, which the FTC argued were made to “neutralise competition”. The regulator sought a court order that would require Meta to sell both platforms.

The case faltered in 2021 after a judge dismissed the suit, stating that the FTC had not “plausibly established” Meta’s monopoly power. The regulator subsequently filed an amended complaint, which was allowed to proceed to trial the following year, extending the litigation for several more years.

In the final ruling, the judge accepted Meta’s argument that acquiring emerging platforms to integrate their capabilities—rather than building similar features internally—constitutes a legitimate business strategy. The court also found that the FTC had presented an unduly narrow view of the competitive landscape by focusing primarily on platforms such as Snapchat and MeWe, rather than considering the broader social media market.

The rapid ascent of TikTok, as well as the continued expansion of YouTube, was cited as evidence that the market remained dynamic and open to new entrants during the period in question. The judge concluded that the FTC had not sufficiently demonstrated that Meta’s conduct stifled market-wide competition.

The ruling removes the threat of a forced break-up and allows Meta to advance without the spectre of divestment. Industry observers have noted that the outcome may also influence Meta’s approach to its long-discussed messaging integration efforts. The company has previously explored creating a unified inbox across its platforms, a move some analysts believed was designed to make any future divestment technically difficult. Recent product decisions, including the introduction of a separate inbox for Threads in July, suggested that the integration push had slowed as Meta grew more confident in its legal position.

With the case now resolved, Meta is expected to proceed with its wider product and platform development plans without the legal uncertainty that has hung over the company since 2020.