Washington: US antitrust enforcers have asked a federal court for extra time in refiling a monopoly abuse case against Facebook which could roll back its acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp, but was thrown out last month.
The Federal Trade Commission said Facebook did not oppose the request to extend the filing deadline by some three weeks until August 19, according to a filing in court Friday and posted online Monday.
The extension gives the FTC time to revise its argument in the case. Last month, Judge James Boasberg of the US District Court of Washington, DC, said in a 53-page opinion that the agency´s initial lawsuit lacked evidence, notably in defining the market that Facebook was allegedly monopolizing.
The federal agency based its case on a "vague" assertion that Facebook controlled more than 60 percent of the social networking market, but the FTC "does not even allege what it is measuring," according to the judge´s June 28 ruling.
The judge said the December FTC complaint "says almost nothing concrete on the key question of how much power Facebook actually had... it is almost as if the agency expects the court to simply nod to the conventional wisdom that Facebook is a monopolist."
The judge issued a separate opinion dismissing the case by the states, saying attorneys general had waited too long to bring the case for the acquisition of Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014.
In this picture, the PCJCCI logo can be seen on September 1, 2022. — Facebook/Pakistan China Joint Chamber of...
A representational image of a US flag pictured alongside a street sign reading "Wall Street" in the New York city. —...
A security guard sits in front of a wall with signs and slogans at the operation building at the Pakistan Steel Mills ...
A worker cleans the entrance to the headquarters of Bank Indonesia, the nation's central bank, in Jakarta, Indonesia....
The MCB's logo is seen on a wall outside the bank's head office. — MCB websiteKARACHI: MCB Bank Limited on...
A foreign currency dealer counts US dollars at a shop in Karachi. — AFP/FileKARACHI: The rupee lost ground against...