+1.65% over its mega-acquisitions of Instagram ($1 billion in 2012) and WhatsApp ($19 billion in 2014), and demanding that Facebook “unwind” the transactions. Federal and state officials are attempting to undo years-old deals that they claim violated antitrust laws even though the FTC investigated and approved them, a process that presages a very long legal fight.
“The Facebook suit is difficult because it seeks to undo an acquisition approved by the Obama administration,” Shubha Ghosh, a law professor at Syracuse University. “The Facebook lawsuit will not be a simple one and will pose challenges for proving a violation and imposing a remedy.”
The FTC has authority to reconsider and unwind past transactions in court if it determines they were anticompetitive. However, it will be difficult for the government to explain how actions that Facebook took six to eight years ago are continuing to harm competition today, says Notre Dame Law School Professor Stephen Yel