The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is back with an amended antitrust lawsuit against Facebook Inc after its first against the social media giant got struck down by a judge. 

Now, the FTC is accusing Facebook of conducting an “illegal buy-or-bury scheme” rather than “innovate” to maintain its dominance in the social media sphere. Simply put, the FTC is placing a mark on Facebook’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp, two of the company’s biggest services.

• In its amended lawsuit, the FTC alleges that Facebook violated federal antitrust laws with its respective acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp in 2012 and 2014. The agency claims that Facebook circa 2011 lacked the acumen to solidify its business in the face of a transition towards the mobile market and thus bought rivals that had succeeded where it failed, allegedly in violation of antitrust laws.

• With its current dominance in the social media market, the FTC claims Facebook has a monopoly in the market and has “harmed the competitive process and limited consumer choice.” The agency appears to be seeking to unwind its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp which were completed years ago, but that seems like a tough call.

• With the amended complaint from the FTC, Facebook has until October 4th to issue a legal response to it. Thereafter, the case will go before a federal judge, where the FTC hopes its case won’t be dismissed as the last time. Already, Facebook’s corporate account on Twitter called the accusations “meritless”.

• Before now, Facebook had petitioned that Lina Khan, the head of the FTC under President Biden, recused herself from cases related to the company due to her past vendetta against it indicated in her public statements. But, its petition was denied and Khan voted in favor of bringing an amended suit against Facebook.

• The first lawsuit from the FTC against Facebook was dismissed in June. That same judge also dismissed a similar lawsuit against Facebook filed by a coalition of US state attorneys general but gave the FTC a second chance to amend its filing and not the states.

• As Facebook is facing an antitrust suit in the US, it’s also facing antitrust probes in the UK over its acquisitions of Kustomer, a chatbot platform, and Giphy, the popular GIF website. Surely, the company’s legal department is busy at this time.

Bottom Line: The FTC is pressing hard with accusations that Facebook Inc has a monopoly on the social media market. It appears very keen on doing that and Facebook is also keen on defending itself. Facebook has always had regulatory issues at one point, so fighting lawsuits isn’t a struggle for the company.

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