Meta Platforms' users are seeking to revive their lawsuit alleging that Facebook monopolized the market for “personal social network services."
U.S. District Court
Judge James Donato in the Northern District of California dismissed their claim last month, ruling that the users hadn't proven that they were harmed by the company's alleged monopoly.
The Facebook users initiated an appeal to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals this week, but haven't yet made substantive arguments to that court.
Donato's
decision in favor of Meta came in a battle dating to 2020, when Vermont resident Maximilian Klein and Illinois resident Sarah Grabert sued the tech company over alleged antitrust violations. 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).
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The plaintiffs contended that if Meta hadn't 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.
Donato ruled that Econonides's opinion wasn't supported by the record, and dismissed the lawsuit on that
basis. He wrote that without Economices' testomony, the plaintiffs couldn't 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.