Meta Subpoenas Rivals to Ask for Their Secrets to Win 2020 Antitrust Lawsuit

Meta seems willing to do anything necessary to win the lawsuit it is facing.

The popular social media company has reportedly subpoenaed its many rivals to have them divulge their secrets for them to win the antitrust lawsuit it received from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 2020, per Bloomberg.

You may remember that the FTC served Meta with the lawsuit due to it alleging that the company monopolized the social networking market in part through its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp.

Meta's Subpoenas To Its Many Rivals

Meta has recently subpoenaed 132 companies, including Snap Inc., Bytedance's TikTok, and audio startup Clubhouse, for them to provide the company with some of their closely guarded secrets to win the antitrust lawsuit the FTC served in 2020.

According to court filings, Meta has asked its rivals for their most important and sensitive information on how they do business, including how they acquire users, scale up products, and make money from features.

Meta also wants to know its rivals' marketing and sales strategies, quality metrics, contact information for their biggest advertisers, and details on their campaigns to attract users from competitors, among others.

The company also added through its spokesperson, Christopher Sgro, that it is willing to seek closely guarded information from 100 more rival companies for it to win and that its subpoenas were a "natural step" in its preparation for the FTC's lawsuit.

Despite Meta's preparations, a trial isn't likely to be in session until 2024 at the earliest.

Reaction Of Meta's Rivals

Understandably, Meta's rivals, particularly Snap, Inc., were not happy with Meta's subpoena. In a court filing, Snap, Inc, represented by Attorney Justina K. Sessions, mentioned that Meta's request is "overboard and abusive."

She also added that Snap Inc. should not be forced to hand Meta insiders a competitive playbook to how it operates.

"[The information Meta is requesting] is exactly the type of information Merta would use to further harm Snap competitively," Sessions said in the court file. "Thus, Snap offered to produce its most sensitive material only if Meta agreed to restrict such material to Meta's outside counsel. Meta refused."

Snap, Inc, which Meta previously tried to acquire, was not the only one raising its grievances on Meta's subpoena. ByteDance's TikTok also complained about Meta's request, stating that what its rival company is asking is "most confidential and highly sensitive business information."

Pinterest Inc., Microsoft Corp.'s LinkedIn, and other companies also aired their grievance to Meta's request, calling it "highly invasive" in a separate court filing.

They also called Meta's request a manifestation of the company's history of hoarding intelligence on competitors, and that it should also be considered in the lawsuit's proceedings.

Kellie Lerner, an antitrust litigator at Robins Kaplan LLP, said that Meta's requests seek "massive amounts of competitively sensitive information."

"You have a company accused of anticompetitive conduct who is now seeking very competitively sensitive information in discovery," Lerner said. "The sheer breadth of what they are trying to get through discovery is something that, in my view, is not typical."

Although Lerner is an antitrust litigator, they are not involved in the FTC's antitrust lawsuit against Meta.