More than most federal agencies today, the FTC embodies the old notion of a bureaucracy in search of a purpose. Precisely because the rather open U.S. economy is defined by relentless competition, the FTC is reduced to filing lawsuits that have no merit, but that give the impression to the gullible that the agency actually has a purpose.
Take a nearly four-year old lawsuit filed in 2020 against Facebook, now Meta. Then and now, the FTC charges that Meta has acquired monopoly power through anti-competitive purchases of Instagram and WhatsApp. The timing and cost of both acquisitions on their own obliterate the notion that either acquisition conferred monopoly status for the buyer, but let’s not start there.
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