• by Wendy Davis , September 30, 2025

Siding with Meta Platforms, a federal judge on Monday dismissed an antitrust lawsuit by Facebook users who claimed that the company monopolized the market for “personal social network services.”

The ruling, issued by U.S. District Court Judge Donato, came in a dispute dating to 2020, when Vermont resident Maximilian Klein and Illinois resident Sarah Grabert sued the platform. The duo -- later joined by Minnesota resident Rachel Banks Kupcho -- claimed that Facebook grew in popularity after allegedly deceiving consumers about its privacy policy, then “weaponized” consumer data in order to acquire potential rivals like social media service Instagram (acquired for $1 billion in 2012) and messaging service WhatsApp (bought for $19 billion in 2014).

The users contended that if Meta had not obtained a monopoly, it would have had to pay users $5 per month for their personal data. That dollar figure came from economist Nichola Economides, who the plaintiffs wanted to present as an expert witness.

Earlier this year, Donato ruled that Economides's opinion was not supported by the record.

“There is no doubt, as he says, that Meta makes a lot of money from user data, but [Economides] did not demonstrate that Meta would be compelled to retain users by paying them, rather than through innovations in services and product quality.” Donato wrote in an order issued in January, when he rejected the plaintiffs' request to certify a class of everyone who used Facebook between December 2016 and December 2020.

While that order prevented the plaintiffs from proceeding with a class-action lawsuit, it allowed them to continue with the case on behalf of themselves as individuals.

The case had been scheduled to go to trial in November, but on Monday Donato cancelled that proceeding and awarded Meta summary judgment -- meaning judgment in its favor without a trial -- based on his prior ruling regarding Economides' opinion.

"The opinions Dr. Economides proposes to present at trial are effectively the same as those found inadmissible during the class certification proceedings. They fare no better a second time around, and so are excluded from the case," Donato wrote.

He added that without Economides' opinions, the plaintiffs would not be able to prove that they suffered any sort of harm from Meta's alleged monopolization.

"The exclusion of Dr. Economides’ injury opinions guts plaintiffs’ case," he wrote, adding: "Meta has demonstrated that plaintiffs cannot prove the essential element of antitrust injury at trial."

The Federal Trade Commission separately is suing Meta over its acquisitions of Instagram and Whatsapp.

U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg in Washington, D.C. held a trial in that matter earlier this year, but hasn't yet issued a decision.