Meta, FTC Agree to Pause Challenge to Agency Constitutionality

Meta Platforms Inc. and the Federal Trade Commission agreed to stay proceedings in a case challenging the agency’s constitutionality pending a decision by the Supreme Court in a similar case involving the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Meta sued the FTC in November to stop its efforts to modify a 2020 privacy settlement with the tech behemoth. Meta alleged in the lawsuit that the FTC’s administration process is biased in favor of its commissioners in the way an independent court would not be.

US District Judge Randolph Moss in March denied Meta’s bid to pause the agency’s proceedings while the lawsuit addressing the agency’s constitutionality was ongoing. Moss previously expressed a desire to wait to rule on the case until the justices decide SEC v. Jarkesy. Meta and the FTC proposed pausing the case until such a ruling in a joint filing Monday.

The Jarkesy case involves similar arguments about the constitutionality of the SEC’s in-house proceedings. The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed the SEC’s ruling in a case against hedge fund founder George Jarkesy, holding that the SEC’s administrative law judges were unconstitutional. The Supreme Court will decide whether to uphold the rulings.

The case is Meta Platforms, Inc. v. Federal Trade Commission et al., D.D.C., No. 1:23-cv-03562-RDM, 4/15/24.