Facebook Calls on Federal Court to Toss Out Antitrust Class Action Lawsuit

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A class action lawsuit alleging that Facebook violates antitrust laws by harvesting user data and monopolizing the online ad market was filed a decade too late and is really a privacy case masquerading as antitrust, the company argued at a California hearing.

On Thursday, the social media giant called on a U.S. District Judge Lucy H. Koh to reject the Facebook antitrust class action lawsuit saying there was no such thing as a social media market and that the claims being made are time-barred, Law360 reports.

According to the Facebook lawsuit, filed in December, Facebook misrepresented its data privacy practices to get more users and has monopolized the social media market through acquisitions leaving users with little choice in platforms.

The consumers allege that Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp and Instagram have hindered competition and monopolized the online ad market, giving Facebook increased access to user data.

Advertisers in the Facebook antitrust class action lawsuit allege that they had to pay supracompetitive prices for advertisements on Facebook due its antitrust practices, Law360 reports.

Stephen A. Swedlow of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP, an attorney for the consumer plaintiffs, argued that the Facebook class action lawsuit was an antitrust case as Facebook allegedly dominated the social media market by using stolen user data to beat out any competition.

Swedlow added that user data now comes with a price tag to advertisers and by not paying for it, Facebook both harmed users through deception and damaged competition.

However, Sonal N. Mehta of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr LLP, an attorney for Facebook, told Koh there was no such thing as a social media market or social advertising submarket for Facebook to monopolize as the plaintiffs claim, Law360 reports. She added that the class action lawsuit’s claims of user deception were based on events that happened more than a decade ago and are now time-barred.

Mehta cited an earlier case against Google where a federal court judge found that Google and Facebook couldn’t be separated into separate advertising markets. She added that  the suit seemed to be a privacy case masquerading as an antitrust matter, noting that the core theory centers on Facebook allegedly misusing its users’ data, Law360 reports.

Swedlow, however, argued that the claims were not time-barred, saying that Facebook continued its deceptive behavior after December 2016, within the four year statute of limitations. He added that the case was fundamentally an antitrust suit even though the deception claims relate to privacy issues.

Koh took the matter under submission.

Do you think Facebook’s user data policies have antitrust claims? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section!

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