The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has announced that it will appeal the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia’s November 2025 ruling in favor of Meta Platforms, Inc. (“Meta”) in the FTC’s long-running monopolization case. The appeal will be heard by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
The FTC maintains that Meta has illegally preserved a monopoly in personal social networking services for over a decade through anticompetitive conduct, specifically by acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp, which the Commission identified as significant competitive threats. Evidence presented during the trial reportedly supports the FTC’s allegations.
Daniel Guarnera, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition, commented on the appeal: “The U.S. economy thrives when competition can flourish and U.S. businesses compete fairly against one another. Yet Meta has maintained its dominant position and record profits for well over a decade not through legitimate competition, but by buying its most significant competitive threats. The FTC will continue fighting its historic case against Meta to ensure that competition can thrive across the country to the benefit of all Americans and U.S. businesses.”
The appeal signals the FTC’s commitment to challenging what it describes as a decade-long pattern of anticompetitive behavior in the social networking sector and to securing remedies that protect competition and consumer choice in digital markets.