A US judge on June 28 dismissed several antitrust complaints filed against social media giant Facebook by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and other state authorities. The complaints -- which were part of the most concerted campaign yet to regulate the social giant and getting it to sell Instagram and WhatsApp -- were termed as "legally insufficient" by Judge James E. Boasberg, US District Court for the District of Columbia.

The dismissal of the cases saw the stock of Facebook reaching a new high, with the company crossing the $1 trillion threshold in market value for the first time. There was a 4.1 percent rise in the stock price of Facebook after the ruling, which translated to CEO Mark Zuckerberg adding $5.1 billion to his fortune.

The ruling comes as the first big blow to state and federal lawsuits that aim at regulating big tech and the alleged abuse of their enormous market power. Some of Facebook’s opponents were hoping this ruling would deliver a massive blow to Facebook by cutting down its scale of expansion and bring in regulatory measures. But much to their disappointment, the ruling did not go against Facebook.

Judge James Boasberg stated that the FTC failed to prove that Facebook had monopoly power in the social networking market, but he has allowed FTC to file a new complaint by July 29. Boasberg dismissed a lawsuit filed by 48 US states led by New York Attorney General Letitia James and said they waited too long to challenge the acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp in 2012 and 2014, respectively. Boasberg did not invite the states to refile their complaint.

In 2020, the FTC and a group of states had filed separate lawsuits accusing Facebook of flouting antitrust law to keep smaller competitors at bay by buying rivals, such as Instagram for $1 billion and WhatsApp for $19 billion.

The FTC, currently headed by Lina Khan, a vocal critic of big tech, is likely to submit an amended complaint to get the court to reconsider the issue.

(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)