Facebook Hit by New U.S. Antitrust Case as FTC Seeks Do-Over (2)

U.S. antitrust officials refiled their monopoly lawsuit against Facebook Inc., seeking to salvage the landmark case that a judge threw out in June.

The Federal Trade Commission on Thursday filed the new complaint in federal court in Washington, alleging that Facebook violated antitrust laws by buying Instagram and WhatsApp in order to eliminate them as competitors. The FTC is asking the court to unwind the acquisitions, as in the previous complaint.

“After failing to compete with new innovators, Facebook illegally bought or buried them when their popularity became an existential threat,” Holly Vedova, the acting director of the agency’s ...