FTC Rests Case at Meta Monopoly Trial, Shifting Focus to Defense

(Bloomberg) -- The Federal Trade Commission wrapped up its case for breaking up Meta Platforms Inc. as an illegal social-media monopoly, with the company now set to lay out its defense in the ongoing antitrust trial.

Meta will take the next several weeks to make its case before US District Judge James Boasberg in Washington. The company also said Thursday the government failed to prove its case, and it would file a motion asking him to rule in its favor.

The trial has so far featured high-profile testimony from witnesses including Meta Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg and former chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg.

The FTC, which wants Meta to spin off Instagram and WhatsApp, claims the company has a monopoly in the market for “personal social networking services,” which consists of products focused on sharing things online with friends and family. The agency argues the monopoly has enabled Meta to degrade the quality of its products, including through weaker privacy protections and an increased volume of ads.

Meta argues that the FTC’s market definition is much too narrow and excludes competitors like ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok, Google’s YouTube and Apple Inc.’s iMessage. 

The FTC doesn’t dispute that Meta competes with those companies in markets such as messaging and video, but it claims that, in the core market of communicating with friends and family, the company’s only real competitor is Snap Inc.’s Snapchat.

Meta counters that social media has changed in recent years and people use a variety of digital means to communicate, including messaging and sharing videos. And Meta has argued throughout the first five weeks of trial that the government has been unable to prove any harm to its users.

The company is beginning its defense by calling Snap employees, including its chief information officer, Saral Jain, whose testimony is largely sealed.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

©2025 Bloomberg L.P.