Facebook sought dismissal citing that the complaints failed to provide adequate facts to support the allegations that it has monopoly power in the Personal Social Networking Services market and willfully maintains that power.
In his opinion, Judge Boasberg made it clear that he does not agree with all of Facebook’s arguments. However, he agreed that the FTC’s complaint must be dismissed because it is legally inadequate.
“Although the Court does not agree with all of Facebook’s contentions here, it ultimately concurs that the agency’s Complaint is legally insufficient and must therefore be dismissed. The FTC has failed to plead enough facts to plausibly establish a necessary element of all of its Section 2 claims— namely, that Facebook has monopoly power in the market for Personal Social Networking (PSN) services. The Complaint contains nothing on that score save the naked allegation that the company has had and still has a “dominant share of th[at] market (in excess of 60%).” wrote Judge Boasberg.
