Meta Platforms Inc. will face a somewhat scaled-back antitrust trial over its alleged dominance of social networking after a federal judge threw out some allegations by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, but the heart of the case remains.
In a brief order on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington said he was narrowing one of the FTC’s claims. He accepted Meta’s arguments that some of its restrictions on its Facebook platform had legitimate business justifications.
But the judge rejected the company’s main contention — that its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp were good