We and our co-counsel secured a landmark victory against the Federal Trade Commission

Davis Polk, alongside co-counsel Kellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel & Frederick, PLLC, secured a landmark trial victory for Meta Platforms in an antitrust lawsuit brought by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The trial team was honored as “Litigators of the Week” winners in AmLaw’s Litigation Daily column.

The FTC filed its lawsuit in 2020, following parallel investigations by the FTC, the Department of Justice and nearly 50 state attorneys general into twelve years of merger- and non-merger-related conduct, including with respect to nearly a dozen individual acquisitions. We advised Meta throughout the investigation, which had the largest scope and size of any antitrust investigation in the past two decades. Our work included the review and production of millions of documents from almost 100 individual custodians, as well as the preparation and defense of several senior executives and other personnel in providing sworn testimony during the investigation.  

In the litigation, the FTC alleged that Meta’s acquisitions of Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014 allowed the company to maintain an illegal monopoly in the market for personal social-networking. Following a weeks-long trial earlier in 2025, U.S. District Chief Judge James Boasberg of the District of Columbia found on November 18, 2025 that the FTC did not prove its claim.

The Davis Polk trial team included partners Michael Scheinkman, James P. Rouhandeh and Sheila R. Adams James, counsel Gregory S. Morrison and associate Marie Killmond. The investigation team included partners Howard Shelanski and Jesse Solomon and counsel David B. Toscano, Tina Hwa Joe and Meredith Manning. Members of the Davis Polk team are based in the New York and Washington DC offices.

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