The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a new antitrust complaint against Facebook on Thursday, August 19, continuing its fight in federal court after a judge threw out its initial claims.
Facebook has until October 4 to respond to the FTC’s amended complaint. The agency had to refile the case after the judge overseeing it said in June that the government had not provided enough evidence that Facebook was a monopoly in social networking, reported The New York Times.
The judge’s decision, and a similar one he made in a case against the company brought by more than 40 states, dealt a stunning blow to regulators’ attempts to rein in Big Tech.
Related: Judge Dismisses FTC’s Antitrust Lawsuit Against Facebook
His decision presented the first major test for Lina Khan, the FTC chair, who was only days into her role at the time. Ms. Khan represents a wave of new thinking about the industry among administration officials and many lawmakers, arguing that the government needs to take far more aggressive action to stem the power of technology giants like Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple. President Biden has appointed multiple regulators with similar aims and lawmakers proposed updates to antitrust laws to target the power of technology companies.
The new complaint is longer than the original, clocking in at 80 pages compared to 53. But in broad strokes, it maintains the core arguments of the original, including allegations that Facebook used anticompetitive acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp to further its monopoly power and that it also unfairly blocked rivals from accessing its application programming interface (API).
The judge also dismissed a similar lawsuit from a coalition of state attorneys general in June, but declined to give them the same second chance as the FTC. New York Attorney General Letitia James, who led the coalition, said they would seek to appeal the ruling.
Want more news? Subscribe to CPI’s free daily newsletter for more headlines and updates on antitrust developments around the world.
