Federal court dismissed antitrust lawsuits against Facebook that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and 48 states seek to pin on the digital ad company.
This isn’t only a feather in the cap for FB, but it’s great news for Google, Snapchat, Twitter and the who’s who of selling digital ads and any tech company that might be perceived as “dominant.”
Many would have been led to believe that big tech and these ad giants were on the cusp of being controlled by legislation, only for the federal court to not even bother with advancing the case.
It means that the law is firmly on the side of big tech and it will be almost impossible to pin charges against big tech unless the law is changed to accommodate a situation that is more conducive to proving that American tech companies abuse their positions in the US economy.
Personally, I do believe they have a monopolistic position against its competitors, but to prove that in court is a different animal with arguments needing to hold up against the test of time.
There is no doubt that the company has a dominant share of the market in the “personal social networking” industry, but market dominance just means they are incredibly good at what they do which is serving ads to targeted audience.
Nothing they do is explicitly illegal and that is the tough part and they do provide “free” services.
Not only that, but Facebook users can also simply not use social media and its various platform as a choice because they can drop it altogether or use a different platform entirely.
The court also dismissed a supplementary complaint by the FTC with the judge ruling that the states had taken too long to take issue with Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp, which were acquired in 2012 and 2014, respectively.
The ruling made the government’s FTC look bad and tardy.
They also are late to the game, unable to understand the tech of our time and enforce borderline fringe behavior.
This is why anti-trust, which many believe is big tech’s largest existential risk, is not really a risk when politicians fail so miserably at even understanding what they do until 9 years later.
Most tech companies are happy to know they have 9 years to skirt the law and aggressively push their business models until the FTC move their finger an inch.
Might as well bet the ranch, right?
Certainly, there will be another wave of amended filed complaints against Facebook within 30 days, which the court will re-review.
But after some convicting loss, prospects look poor for the FTC.
The way in which the law is worded today means that Facebook has to be on the radar of investors as a premier buy the dip trade now that one of the bigger risks is off the table.
Facebook's valuation has more than doubled since the onset of the pandemic as more people use its diversified network of apps to stay in touch with friends and family in a socially distant world.
The social network had over 2.85 billion monthly active users in Q1 2021 and join other tech firms over $1 trillion such as Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet.
I would execute a bullish position in Facebook after a retracement from the 4% pop on the good news.
Tech is expensive and has had another resurgence over the past few weeks.
It continues to be an industry you cannot bet against and that is why you have to be patient for entry points to come to you.
