Meta will face antitrust trial over Instagram, WhatsApp acquisitions

Facebook owner Meta Platforms must face trial in a US Federal Tre Commission lawsuit seeking its break up over claims that it bought Instagram and WhatsApp to crush emerging competition in social media, a judge in Washington ruled on Wednesday.

Judge James Boasberg largely denied Meta's motion to end case filed against Facebook in 2020, during Trump ministration, alleging that company acted illegally to maintain its social network monopoly.

Meta, n known as Facebook, overpaid for Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014 to eliminate nascent threats inste of competing on its own in mobile ecosystem, FTC claimed.

Boasberg let that claim stand, but dismissed FTC's allegation that Facebook restricted third-party app developers' access to platform unless y agreed not to compete with its core services.

judge also disallowed Meta from raising as a defense that WhatsApp acquisition benefited its strategic position towards Apple and Google. judge said he would release a detailed ruling later on Wednesday after FTC and Meta have h a chance to redact any sensitive commercial information.

A trial date in case has not been set.

Meta h urged judge to dismiss entire case, saying it depended on an overly narrow view of social media markets, and did not take into account competition from ByteDance's TikTok, Google's YouTube, X, and Microsoft's LinkedIn.

case is one of five blockbuster lawsuits where antitrust regulators at FTC and US Department of Justice are going after Big Tech.

Amazon .com Inc and Apple are both being sued, and Alphabet's Google is facing two lawsuits, including one where a judge recently found it unlawfully thwarted competition among online search engines.