FTC Says Amended Suit ‘Sufficiently Pleads’ Case vs. Meta’s Within Buy

The FTC’s amended complaint to block Meta’s Within Unlimited buy “sufficiently pleads that the proposed acquisition may substantially lessen competition,” said the agency’s response Thursday (docket 5:22-cv-04325) in opposition to Meta’s Oct. 13 motion to dismiss the case. Meta’s assertion that the FTC “has not alleged facts sufficient to support a claim” based on theories of anticompetitive harm in the long history of antitrust case law “ignores the statutory authority under which the FTC proceeds in this matter,” it said. The FTC brought the case “to obtain interim, injunctive relief to preserve the status quo to protect the Commission’s ability to conduct its administrative adjudicatory proceeding on the merits,” it said. “The ultimate merits issue as to which the FTC must raise substantial questions is not whether the acquisition will substantially lessen competition” but whether there is a reasonable probability of anticompetitive effect from the acquisition, it said. “The FTC has done just that with respect to its allegations of harm to actual potential competition and perceived potential competition.” Meta’s arguments to the contrary “ignore the FTC’s burden, and instead discuss (or invent) issues relevant to the ultimate merits of claims brought directly under Section 7 of the Clayton Act,” it said.