Facebook´s stock rose more than 4% Monday and reached a market value of more than $1 trillion for the first time in its history, following the rejection of the Federal Trade Commission´s antitrust complaint by a US federal court.
In a legal opinion memorandum published Monday, Judge James Boasberg of the US District Court for the District of Columbia said the FTC "failed to provide sufficient facts to demonstrate that Facebook has monopoly power in the personal social networking services market." According to "CNN".
The Federal Trade Commission has said that Facebook violated the country´s antitrust laws by acquiring start-ups such as Instagram that it saw as a threat to its dominance, and by preventing others from connecting to Facebook´s services.
"We are pleased that today´s decisions acknowledge the flaws in the government´s complaints filed against Facebook," the company said in a statement.
The decision is a setback for antitrust regulators who have called for the company to be dissolved. But while the judge dismissed the FTC´s complaint, he generally did not dismiss the case, saying that issues related to the FTC´s lawsuit could be addressed if the agency filed an amended complaint.
