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Showing posts with label U.S. Court. Show all posts
U.S. Court
Antitrust Data Privacy FTC Meta Technology U.S. Court

Meta Cleared of Monopoly Charges in FTC Antitrust Case

 

A U.S. federal judge ruled that Meta does not hold a monopoly in the social media market, rejecting the FTC's antitrust lawsuit seeking divestiture of Instagram and WhatsApp. The FTC, joined by multiple states, filed the suit in December 2020, alleging Meta (formerly Facebook) violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act by acquiring Instagram for $1 billion in 2012 and WhatsApp for $19 billion in 2014. 

These moves were part of a supposed "buy-or-bury" strategy to eliminate rivals in "personal social networking services" (PSNS), stifling innovation, increasing ads, and weakening privacy. The agency claimed Meta's dominance left consumers with few alternatives, excluding platforms like TikTok and YouTube from its narrow market definition.

Trial and ruling

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg oversaw a seven-week trial ending in May 2025, featuring testimony from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who highlighted competition from TikTok and YouTube. In an 89-page opinion on November 18, 2025, Boasberg ruled the FTC failed to prove current monopoly power, noting the social media landscape's rapid evolution with surging apps, new features, and AI content.He emphasized Meta's market share—below 50% and declining in a broader market including Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube—showed no insulation from rivals.

Key arguments and evidence

The FTC presented internal emails suggesting Zuckerberg feared Instagram and WhatsApp as threats, arguing acquisitions suppressed competition and harmed users via heavier ads and less privacy. Boasberg dismissed this, finding direct evidence like supra-competitive profits or price hikes insufficient for monopoly proof, and rejected the PSNS market as outdated given overlapping uses across apps.Meta countered that regulators approved the deals initially and that forcing divestiture would hurt U.S. innovation.I

Implications

Meta hailed the decision as affirming fierce competition and its contributions to growth, avoiding operational upheaval for its 3.54 billion daily users. The FTC expressed disappointment and is reviewing options, marking a setback amid wins against Google but ongoing cases versus Apple and Amazon. Experts view it as reinforcing consumer-focused antitrust in dynamic tech markets.
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U.S. Court
BreachForums CSAM Cyber Crime Federal Prison U.S. Court

BreachForums Founder Resentenced to Three Years After Appeal

 

In a significant legal outcome for the cybersecurity landscape, Conor Fitzpatrick, the founder of the notorious BreachForums underground hacking site, has been resentenced to three years in federal prison after appeals overturned his previous lenient sentence. 

Fitzpatrick, who operated under the alias Pompompurin, was originally arrested in March 2023 for running the forum and faced multiple charges: access device conspiracy, access device solicitation, and possession of child sexual abuse material (CSAM). He pleaded guilty to all counts in January 2024 and was initially handed 17 days in jail and 20 years of supervised release, a punishment prosecutors sharply criticized as dramatically insufficient given the gravity of his crimes. 

Appeals and resentencing 

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit agreed with prosecutors, declaring the original sentence “substantively unreasonable” for failing to serve proper sentencing purposes. This led to Fitzpatrick’s resentencing and a harsher three-year prison term.

BreachForums, which emerged in March 2022 as a successor to the dismantled RaidForums, became one of the most active online marketplaces for stolen data and compromised credentials. At its peak, it hosted more than 14 billion individual records and counted 330,000 members among its user base. U.S. authorities emphasized that Fitzpatrick “personally profited from the sale of vast quantities of stolen information,” ranging from private personal details to sensitive commercial data. 

Despite repeated law enforcement takedown attempts, BreachForums managed to resurface multiple times, illustrating the resilience of such underground communities. The arrest of Baphomet, the admin who took over after Fitzpatrick was detained, did little to slow the forum; it slipped into the hands of ShinyHunters, a cybercriminal group linked to several high-profile data breaches. 

As of mid-September 2025, BreachForums is offline, with its maintainers announcing a decision to “go dark”—a phrase that suggests not just temporary shutdown, but a possible strategic retreat rather than a permanent closure. This mirrors the recent moves of other infamous cybercrime collectives like Lapsus$ and Scattered Spider, who have also vanished from the digital underground, at least for now. 

Context and implications 

The case of Conor Fitzpatrick and BreachForums highlights the challenges of prosecuting transnational cybercrime and the difficulties law enforcement faces in permanently dismantling underground hacking forums. Despite impressive numbers—14 billion records, hundreds of thousands of members—the legal outcome for operators is often uncertain, with initial sentences sometimes appearing disproportionately light compared to the scale of the harm caused.

The resentencing of Fitzpatrick marks a tightening stance by the U.S. Department of Justice, signaling that courts are now more willing to impose harsher penalties on those who profit from stolen data and operate platforms that enable large-scale cybercrime. Yet, even as high-profile forums like BreachForums disappear, the enduring cycle of takedown, migration, and reemergence of similar platforms suggests that the broader threat will persist as long as demand for stolen data remains high.
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