Meta (META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg is trying to convince President Trump to halt a high-stakes, government-initiated antitrust trial targeting a breakup of his $1.3 trillion empire. He is running out of time.
The trial, set to begin Monday, would pit the social media giant against Trump’s Federal Trade Commission, which claims Meta violated antitrust laws by acquiring start-up rival companies such as Instagram and WhatsApp instead of competing with them. The FTC launched the case during Trump’s first term.
Government prosecutors are seeking a dramatic breakup of the company that owns Facebook, asking for a judge to force Meta to spin off mobile apps Instagram and WhatsApp. Instagram’s $32 billion US ad revenue in 2024 represented 48.4% of Meta’s total revenue that year, according to Emarketer.
Zuckerberg would like to avoid the potentially devastating blow to the company and has made multiple visits to the White House to meet with President Trump and administration officials.
Mark Zuckerberg arrives before the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 47th president of the United States on Jan. 20. Photo: Kenny Holston/Pool via REUTERS ·via REUTERS / Reuters
The Wall Street Journal, Politico, and the New York Times reported he is trying to settle the case before the trial begins, although the Journal reported the president had not decided whether the administration should settle the case or take Meta to trial.
Trump’s hand-picked FTC chairman, Andrew Ferguson, has said he would defer to the president’s orders on how to proceed against Meta.
During a Y Combinator conference in Washington last week, Ferguson said, “I think it’s important for me to obey lawful orders,” when asked if he would drop a lawsuit like the FTC’s case against Meta at the president’s discretion.
“I think that the president recognizes that we’ve got to enforce the laws, so I’d be very surprised if anything like that ever happened,” Ferguson added.
Barry Barnett, an antitrust litigation attorney with Susman Godfrey, doubts that Zuckerberg’s overtures will lead the FTC to drop its case.
FTC boss Andrew Ferguson. REUTERS/Sophie Park ·REUTERS / Reuters
“A settlement looks unlikely,” Barnett said, pointing out the extensive workup that the commission has performed to get the case to trial.
Barnett noted the case’s long history with 518 docket entries, the 37 days that the judge set for trial, and the “all-or-nothing nature of the FTC’s case.” Together, Barnett said, the factors suggest a fierce fight will unfold in the courtroom starting April 14.
New York University antitrust law professor Eleanor Fox said it’s no surprise that Zuckerberg is lobbying to settle the high-stakes case, given the strong incentives for Meta to avoid trial.
“I believe the facts are clear that Zuckerberg decided to compromise the competition by vacuuming up emerging promising competitors rather than compete,” Fox said.
What’s more, Fox said, is that District of Columbia federal district court Judge James Boasberg agreed that the FTC’s claims were strong enough to go forward with the case after first granting Meta’s motion to dismiss it.
Fox added that Zuckerberg has further incentive to lobby for a settlement because the president has made it clear that he is open to dismissal of legal actions in return for promises to support him.
A decision by the administration to go forward with a trial could frustrate Zuckerberg’s efforts to curry favor with the new administration. Meta sank a $1 million donation into Trump’s inaugural fund and Zuckerberg attended the inauguration along with other Big Tech CEOs.
Before Trump took office, Zuckerberg visited the president’s private Mar-a-Lago club to meet with his transition team.
“Facebook has systematically tracked potential rivals and acquired companies that it viewed as serious competitive threats,” the FTC alleged, claiming the actions violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act.
Fox said she expects Facebook’s 2013 acquisition of the controversial mobile analytics company, Onavo, to be problematic for its defense if it is forced to face trial.
Onavo offered Facebook users the benefit of more internet browsing privacy by providing them with a virtual private network (VPN) service. However, at the same time, it gobbled up and analyzed their user data. Facebook shuttered the app in 2019.
“I believe it is clear that Facebook bought the application Onavo to identify [promising competitors],” Fox said.
The social media apps TikTok, X (Twitter), Threads, Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp seen displayed on a smartphone. (Photo Illustration by Thomas Fuller/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) ·SOPA Images via Getty Images
The FTC’s original complaint, filed in December 2020, alleged that Facebook used its acquisitions to illegally block rival companies from entering the market for “personal social networking.”
At first, Boasberg dismissed the lawsuit, saying the FTC didn’t meet its requirement to show that Facebook held monopoly power in the alleged market.
Boasberg later accepted an amended complaint that was refiled during former President Joe Biden’s administration by FTC Commissioner Lina Khan.
In a court document filed last week, Judge Boasberg emphasized that the FTC’s case isn’t a slam dunk. He pointed out that the agency must first show that Meta did, in fact, hold predominant market share in a relevant product market, protected by barriers to entry.
Then, in order to prevail, he said, the FTC would need to show that Meta’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp were anticompetitive. WhatsApp’s business messaging brought in $1.7 billion in 2024 and grew its business user base in the fourth quarter to more than 530 million daily active users.
“If these facts are given the weight they deserve, the main issue will be remedy, not liability,” Fox said.
Liability on the FTC’s claims would not automatically force Meta to divest Instagram and WhatsApp. Divestment would depend on a separate phase of the trial where the judge must find a remedy that balances hardships between Meta and its users.
Alexis Keenan is a legal reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow Alexis on X @alexiskweed.
