Statement from Robert H. Bork, Jr.: Will Trump’s FTC Continue to Carry Water for Lina Khan?

“Federal Judge James E. Boasberg slapped down the Federal Trade Commission’s nonsensical antitrust lawsuit against Meta over its acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp.

“The case long had antitrust observers scratching their heads. The FTC did not block these acquisitions when they occurred in 2012 and 2014. It was only when Biden’s FTC Chair Lina Khan took the reins that she retroactively decided that these acquisitions were attempts to squeeze out competition in a way that violated Section 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act.

“In short, Meta was accused of conspiring to create a monopoly. But a monopoly of what? The Distracted Boyfriend meme? The Woman Screaming at a Cat meme?

“The argument was that Meta was setting out to monopolize the personal social-networking market. Forget that YouTube (2.7 billion monthly users), LinkedIn (582 million), Telegram (1 billion), TikTok (2 billion), Snapchat (900 million), and others, create social networks. FTC defined its product market narrowly enough to target Meta, owner of Facebook, as well as Instagram and WhatsApp.

“It’s as if the FTC decided to go after Chick-fil-A and defined a market for ‘chicken sandwiches that are never sold on Sundays.’ Little wonder, then, that after listening to 38 witnesses over six weeks of testimony, Judge Boasberg followed the law and cried “Bubulum Stercus.”

Two questions remain.

• First, why did FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson opt to continue this dog of a lawsuit? Our read of him is that he doesn’t have Lina Khan’s willingness to lose in court in order to push a progressive point on antitrust. So why did he carry this loser?

• Second, will Chairman Ferguson press on with the rest of Khan’s pack-of-dogs, the highest profile one being the equally weak case against Amazon?

Dumping Khan’s dogs would be an excellent chance for Chairman Ferguson to demonstrate that economic logic and consumer benefit come first under the Trump Administration.