The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has appealed a court ruling that dismissed its antitrust case against Meta Platforms, seeking to revive its challenge to the company’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp, according to a report by Reuters.
An FTC spokesperson confirmed on Tuesday that the agency is pressing ahead with the appeal, even after a federal court ruled in November 2025 that Meta does not currently hold a monopoly.
“Meta violated our antitrust laws when it acquired Instagram and WhatsApp. Consequently, American consumers have suffered from Meta’s monopoly,” FTC spokesperson Joe Simonson said. He added that the US agency’s position “has not changed”.
The appeal marks the latest development in a five-year legal battle that began in 2020, when the FTC accused Meta, then Facebook, of illegally maintaining monopoly power by buying potential rivals instead of competing with them.
The FTC first filed its lawsuit against Meta Platforms in December 2020, alleging that the company had unlawfully maintained monopoly power in the market for social networking by acquiring Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014.
A US court dismissed the FTC’s initial complaint in June 2021 as legally insufficient, following which the agency filed an amended complaint in August 2021. In January 2022, the court allowed the revised case to proceed, and the matter moved into trial, with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifying in April 2025.
What was the November 2025 verdict?
In November last year, US District Judge James E. Boasberg dismissed the FTC’s case, holding that the agency failed to prove that Meta holds monopoly power on social media. The court rejected the FTC’s argument that Meta dominates a narrow market called “personal social networking services”. The judge said the digital landscape has changed significantly since the case was filed and that users today move across multiple platforms for social interaction and content.
Based on user behaviour data, the court found that time spent on platforms such as TikTok and YouTube substitutes for time spent on Facebook and Instagram. As a result, the judge ruled that Meta competes in a broader social media market that includes at least TikTok and YouTube.
Because of this wider market definition, Meta’s market share did not meet the legal threshold required to establish its monopoly power.“The agency has not carried its burden: Meta holds no monopoly in the relevant market,” Boasberg remarked in November last year.
Why the Breakup Bid Failed
The FTC had asked the court to force Meta to either restructure or sell Instagram and WhatsApp, arguing that the Mark Zuckerberg-led company had acquired these platforms to eliminate emerging competitors. However, the judge said such a remedy required proof of an ongoing or imminent violation of antitrust law.
To explain, under Section 13(b) of the US Federal Trade Commission Act, the FTC can seek an…
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