WASHINGTON – Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, is set to stand trial due to a lawsuit from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission that seeks to dismantle the company. The FTC claims that Meta acquired Instagram and WhatsApp to eliminate upcoming competition in social media, as ruled by a Washington judge on Wednesday.

Judge James Boasberg mostly dismissed Meta’s request to throw out the lawsuit, initially filed against Facebook in 2020 during the Trump administration. This lawsuit accuses the company of operating illegally to keep its monopoly in the social networking market.

The FTC argued that Meta, previously known as Facebook, overpaid for Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014, seeking to suppress potential competition rather than innovate within the mobile market.

Though Boasberg allowed this claim to proceed, he did reject the FTC’s assertion that Facebook limited access to third-party app developers unless they committed not to compete with its main services.

The judge also prohibited Meta from using the argument that acquiring WhatsApp improved its competitive stance against Apple and Google. He mentioned that he would provide a more detailed ruling later on Wednesday after both parties had the opportunity to hide any sensitive commercial information.

A date for the trial has not yet been scheduled.

Meta claimed that this case should be dismissed entirely, arguing that it has an overly limited perspective on social media markets, ignoring competition from platforms like TikTok, YouTube, X, and LinkedIn.

This lawsuit is one of five significant cases where antitrust regulators from the FTC and the U.S. Department of Justice are challenging major technology companies.

Other companies like Amazon.com Inc and Apple are also facing lawsuits, while Alphabet’s Google is dealing with two lawsuits, one of which recently saw a judge declare that Google unlawfully hindered competition among online search engines.