Facebook is facing court as a defendant in an antitrust case.
The New York Times reported that the U.S. District Court in Washington, DC has decided to proceed with an antitrust lawsuit brought by the Federal Trade Commission and the FTC against Facebook.
Earlier, the court dismissed an antitrust lawsuit filed by the FTC in June last year on the grounds that there was insufficient evidence to support the claim that Facebook was exercising its monopoly power by unfairly restricting competition in the social media industry.
However, the court at the time gave the FTC a deadline to present additional evidence.
Since then, the FTC submitted additional evidence in August of last year, and the Washington DC District Court concluded that there was sufficient grounds to proceed with the trial.
The New York Times analyzed that the court's decision to proceed with the lawsuit will act as a positive factor in the US government's attempts to regulate large IT companies such as Amazon, Google and Apple.
Facebook, which changed its name to Meta following a court decision, would have to prove that it did not violate antitrust laws against the FTC's claim that it exercised monopoly power through a merger with a competitor.
Facebook acquired Instagram in 2012 for $1 billion and WhatsApp in 2014 for $19 billion.
Facebook has argued that the Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions were also for consumers and had nothing to do with monopolies.
A Facebook spokesperson said: "I am confident that the trial will prove that the FTC's allegations of antitrust violations are unfounded."
(Photo = Yonhap News)