46 States Ask Appeals Court To Reinstate Facebook Lawsuit

A big group of U.S. states, led by New York, has argued to an appeals court that it should reinstate an antitrust lawsuit against Meta's Facebook because of ongoing harm from the company's actions and because the states had not waited too long to file their complaint. From a report: Barbara Underwood, solicitor general of New York which led the group that consists of 46 states, Guam and District of Columbia, said that it was wrong to treat states like a class action and put a limit on when they can sue. States not involved are Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and South Dakota. She said the states' action was more akin to law enforcement so "laches," which forbids an unreasonable delay in filing, would not apply. She said that Facebook's actions harmed the economy and the marketplace. The states are asking the three-judge panel on U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to reinstate a lawsuit filed in 2020, the same time that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission sued the company. Both the FTC and the states had asked the court to order Facebook to sell Instagram, which it bought for $1 billion in 2012, and WhatsApp, which it bought for $19 billion in 2014. The FTC fight with Facebook is going forward.

20 years

[Local ID10T]

We approved the acquisitions almost 20 years ago... It's too late.

We need to aggressively regulate big business -but don't think we can turn back time.

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[Anonymous Coward]

We approved the acquisitions almost 20 years ago... It's too late.

We need to aggressively regulate big business -but don't think we can turn back time.

20 years ago that was a completely different animal. You had a puppy before and didn't know it was going to grow into a dangerous wolf. You want to do something aggressive to regulate big business? Stop using time limits as an excuse. It tends to come across as you representing their defense.

Re: 20 years

[AutoTrix]

8 & 10 are not even twenty combined.

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[ShanghaiBill]

Indeed. 20 years ago, Facebook didn't exist, and Mark Zuckerberg was in high school.

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[Local ID10T]

8 & 10 are not even twenty combined.

You are correct...

It has been 10 years, not 20 years.

It is still too late to say "No" to the deals. We need to find a different solution to the problem of their bad behavior.

Re:

[Anubis IV]

The suit was filed years ago, so you’re off by 12-14 years with your suggestion it’s been 20, and contrary to your other statement earlier the acquisitions were never “approved”. The FTC chose not to intercede at the time, but they reserved their right as a regulatory body to do so later.

Moreover, it really doesn’t matter how long it’s been. Ma Bell was forced to break up after decades of being a monopoly, and those fractures weren’t even along business unit or bran

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[Pinky's Brain]

Still all just Trump derangement syndrome, they're blamed for Trump getting elected.

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[Tablizer]

If you piss off both red and blue, you will become black and blue.

Which states are NOT backing this lawsuit??

[BardBollocks]

.. and what can we discern as to reasons why not?

Can you have it both ways?

[realxmp]

I'm wondering if this isn't an unfortunate argument to make? If they want to argue that laches doesn't apply because they want to say that this is a criminal law action then aren't they opening the door for Meta to argue that if they want to evade civil law principals then they should be made to prove their case beyond reasonable doubt rather than to the balance of probabilities? Honestly it seems they're probably better off just arguing ongoing harm and dropping the past harm claims altogether.