Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios
All eyes are on a blockbuster FTC case against Meta that wrapped up this week and could be a bellwether for how the agency keeps tackling Big Tech under President Trump.
Why it matters: Tech CEOs are catering to Trump, and it remains to be seen whether their overtures will get them any policy wins.
- Mark Zuckerberg's efforts in White House meetings to have the antitrust case settled before having to go to trial did not bear fruit.
- Now, observers say a ruling is likely to go in Meta's favor, but because of the merits of the case, not any favors from Trump.
Catch up quick: The antitrust case was launched during Trump's first term in 2020, with the FTC alleging that Meta's acquisition of WhatsApp and Instagram allowed the tech giant to shut down competition from nascent new products.
- Meta argues it's facing plenty of competition from TikTok, YouTube, iMessage and many others. Zuckerberg took the stand in April.
- If the government ultimately prevails, WhatsApp and Instagram could be spun out of Meta.
State of play: The trial ended Tuesday without closing arguments.
- Each side will be able to file follow-up briefings through the summer, after which a ruling is expected.
The FTC presented 30 witnesses during the trial, according to a senior agency official, from former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg and Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom to executives from Apple, Google, X and TikTok.
- Plus, 440 exhibits were entered into evidence, the official said in a call with reporters, adding that "the FTC has always believed that the facts are on our side in this case."
- Meta called up many of the same witnesses, repeatedly arguing that WhatsApp and especially Instagram never would have reached their current level of success without Meta's expertise and investment.
What they're saying: "After six weeks trying their case to undo acquisitions made over a decade ago and show that no deal is ever truly final, the only thing the FTC showed was the dynamic, hyper-competitive nature of the past, present and future of the technology industry," a Meta spokesperson said.
- Justin Teresi, an antitrust analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence, said he sees Meta as likely coming out on top because cross-examinations were effective in neutralizing the FTC's case.
- For example, when Systrom first took the stand, he contended Instagram would have been able to flourish without Meta purchasing it.
- But by the time he left the stand after cross-examination, Systrom had acknowledged that Meta was able to fix spam issues with the app and add new functionalities, boosting competition.
The big picture: The FTC under chair Andrew Ferguson has pushed what he and allies are calling a "MAGA antitrust" agenda. That means cases that continued throughout the Biden administration, like Meta and Google's cases, are seen through — but antitrust law is wielded in totally different ways too.
- The FTC is soliciting comments on alleged Big Tech censorship, and more recently is going after liberal watchdog group Media Matters over claims it organized advertiser boycotts of Elon Musk's X.
- Ferguson is keeping up some of what predecessor Lina Khan started in competition cases and rulemaking against "junk fees" but dropping other key cases, such as an antitrust case against PepsiCo. this week, and giving up on its challenge of Microsoft's acquisition of Activation Blizzard.
- "[Ferguson] is pivoting hard from populist antitrust, which he inherited some good cases about, to grievance-based performative populism, and it's starting to show," one former senior FTC official said.
What to watch: "[Ferguson's FTC] may drop other cases they don't like, and may abandon other initiatives they don't like, but there's still a lot of overlap in the Venn diagram," said former FTC chair Bill Kovacic.
- "They're going to say we're doing it a different way and for a different purpose, and that's why it's the Trump-Vance antitrust era and not Biden-Harris."
