Day one from the Meta trial: Mark Zuckerberg at the helm

Meta’s trial, accused of having bought Instagram and WhatsApp to stifle potential competitors, opened Washington on Monday, despite the efforts of his boss Mark Zuckerberg to avoid it.

The billionaire was called to the bar first. He must try to show that the two services have only become essential applications thanks to investments in his group.

The case arrived in court five years after the complaint filed under the first Trump administration. If the social media giant loses, it could be forced to separate from its two flagship platforms, the Instagram social network and WhatsApp messaging.

The American consumer protection agency, the FTCwill have to prove that Meta, then called the Facebook group, abused its dominant position during the acquisition of Instagram in 2012, for a billion dollars, and WhatsApp in 2014, for 19 billion.

[Meta] decided that competition was too rough and that it would be easier to buy your rivals rather than being in competition with themdefended in his introductory remarks the representative of the authority, Daniel Matheson, in a very garnished courtroom.

It was for Meta eliminate immediate threatshe explained.

Acquisitions [engagées avec la volonté] To grow and improve bought companies have never been illegal.

Mark Hansen describes the two operations as successes in terms of many consumers.

Mark Zuckerberg, founder of the Californian group and third world fortune, was immediately called upon to testify.

The definition of the market, at the heart of the trial

The case will be played in particular on the definition of the market, on which the two parties oppose.

For the American authority, Meta’s services fall under Personal social networkswhich allow you to stay in touch with family and friends; The other large platforms such as the very popular Tiktok and YouTube do not belong to the same category.

A prospect that the Silicon Valley firm rejects.

The fact that these services are different in certain aspects of Meta applications is only proving that these close competitors innovate with tools and features to gain in minutes of user attentionindicates the defense.

Meta, for her part, also develops innovations in response to those she considers her competitors, still pleads her representative.

Occupied anti -competitive authorities

The complaint against Meta is one of the five major anti -competitive actions launched in recent years by the United States government in the technology sector.

Google was found guilty of abuse of dominant position on the online research market last August, while Apple and Amazon are also the subject of prosecution.

During the eight weeks of trial, the FTC will seek to demonstrate that Meta monopoly results in degraded use for Internet users, forced to tolerate too many advertisements and steep changes.

From the opening of the hearing on Monday morning, the agency began to highlight emails from Mark Zuckerberg.

The potential impact of Instagram is really scary and that is why we should consider paying a lot of moneyhad written the founder of Facebook before the acquisition of the photo sharing application.

Instagram now has 2 billion users and users around the world.

Meta lawyers say that substantial investments have transformed the two young shoots into superproductions. They will also emphasize that the FTC had initially approved the two transactions and that it should not be allowed to go back.

If she won her action against Google last summer, the FTC has also undergone several setbacks before the courts. It could not prevent the acquisition of the virtual reality company within by Meta and that of the Activision-Blizzard video game giant by Microsoft.

Judge James Boasberg, who will decide the case of Meta, has already warned that the FTC will face difficult questions about the ability of his accusations to hold the road before the courtyard.