US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently urged the judges hearing the agency’s antitrust lawsuit against Facebook to reject the social media company’s request to dismiss the lawsuit.
Last year, the agency filed a lawsuit against Facebook, claiming that the company has monopoly power over personal social networks in the United States and maintained its monopoly power by “acquiring competitive companies and preventing or hindering the development of competitors.”
The FTC’s latest request is the latest development of this legal action concerning the future of Facebook. Facebook tried to keep Instagram and WhatsApp and prevent the government from splitting these two businesses.
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Last month, Facebook claimed that the FTC’s attempt to dissolve acquisitions that had already obtained regulatory approvals years ago was a “retroversion” of past history.
In response, the FTC submitted the latest documents to the Washington Federal Court on Wednesday, urging the judge to reject Facebook’s request to dismiss the lawsuit.
The FTC believes that Facebook is trying to end the battle “before the lawsuit begins.” According to the content of the document, the FTC also stated that the company’s “repeated statement” that the FTC could have rejected the acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp many years ago is irrelevant to this case.
The FTC wrote in the document: “Congress has clearly stipulated that the FTC does not have to challenge the acquisition at the beginning. On the contrary, the FTC can challenge the acquisition at any time in accordance with any legal provisions.”
(Via)
