Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg smiled happily after several cases on Facebook in his victory especially after Facebook was named as a company with a capitalization worth 1 trillion dollars.
By December 2020, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and about 46 state attorneys general were filing two antitrust lawsuits against the company.
The allegations come as Facebook's two major acquisitions of Instagram and Whatsapp will create a monopoly.
Ian Conner, director of the FTC's Bureau of Competition, said: "Our goal is to create and restore competition, so that free competition and innovation can flourish."
FTC FAILED
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The District Court in the United States for Colombia dismissed both cases.
And said there was not enough evidence for the FTC case to proceed.
The opinion memorandum (PDF) to FTC Judge James E Boasberg explains "The FTC failed to file a reasonable reason,
With no sufficient facts to establish a claim, that is, Facebook has monopoly power in the personal social networking service (PSN) market.
The state attorney general's lawsuit was dismissed for two reasons, as Judge Boasberg explained in a second memorandum opinion.
The first reason suggests an attack on facebook's acquisition.
"It is forbidden by the doctrine of laches, which hinders aid for those who sleep in their rights."
That's related to the fact that Facebook acquired Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014,
But a lawsuit against the acquisition was not filed until December 2020.
The second reason suggests that "nothing is unlawful" about preventing interoperability with competing applications.
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The case presented by the FTC can continue,
But Judge Boasberg allowed for the new case, focusing on Facebook's market dominance.
There was a direct effect of both antitrust lawsuits from the failed FTC,
The effect was in the form of an increase in Facebook's stock price that rose significantly. This pushed Facebook's capitalization in the market to above $1 trillion for the first time.
This is what makes facebook founders smile happily.
