After a five-year legal process, Meta has won a lawsuit from the United States Federal Trade Commission ( FTC ) regarding the acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp.
According to TechCrunch news on November 18, 2025, United States District Judge James Boasberg in his opinion stated that the FTC could not prove that Meta violated antitrust rules when it acquired Instagram for US$1 billion in 2012 and WhatsApp for US$19 billion in 2014.
Judge Boasberg did not decide whether Meta was acting monopolistically at the time, but whether a monopoly exists under current conditions.
Boasberg points to apps like TikTok as evidence that Meta has competition.
"The landscape that existed just five years ago, when the Federal Trade Commission filed this antitrust lawsuit, has changed drastically," Boasberg wrote in his opinion memorandum.
"While it may have once made sense to divide apps into separate social networking and social media markets, that wall has now come down," he said.
