FTC, Meta Far Apart in Deposition Dispute, Joint Statement Shows

Meta moved Wednesday for an order to compel the FTC to sit for a deposition in the agency’s lawsuit to block Meta’s Within Unlimited buy. “The FTC has taken the extreme position of refusing to produce any representative for a Rule 30(b)(6) deposition on the FTC’s product market and competitive effects allegations, as well as on issues of agency bias that infect this lawsuit,” said Meta in a joint statement with the FTC (docket 5:22-cv-04325) in U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Jose on the status of their deposition dispute. The mention of agency bias refers to Meta’s efforts to seek the recusal of FTC Chair Lina Khan. “The FTC’s objections are not supported by law,” and they “substantially prejudice” Meta “in this expedited proceeding where there is no legitimate basis for the FTC to continue withholding highly relevant information at the close of fact discovery,” said the company. The FTC countered that having previously issued a “facially overbroad and otherwise defective” deposition notice covering 31 topics, Meta issued an amended notice on Oct. 19, a week before the close of fact discovery. The amended notice “suffers from the same defects” as the original because it “impermissibly” seeks to depose FTC attorneys on “privileged matters,” and because it seeks testimony that is “unreasonably” duplicative of information that’s already in Meta’s possession.