30 Dec Judge Allows Newman LLP to Proceed Against Facebook in Antitrust Suit

Newman | LLP attorneys Derek Newman and Derek Linke won a motion to dismiss an antitrust case against Facebook. A Delaware federal judge cleared the path for the firm’s client, Kickflip, Inc.—known better as Gambit—to proceed toward trial. This isn’t the first antitrust case against Facebook. But this is the first time Facebook has been defeated on a motion to dismiss when sued for anticompetitive behavior.

The lawsuit alleges that Facebook violated antitrust laws when it required game developers to use Facebook’s virtual-currency services as a condition to offering games on Facebook. Antitrust laws make it illegal to dominate an area of commerce with a product and then force customers to accept another product in order to use the first. As a result of the policy, Facebook almost eliminated the entire virtual-currency services industry and decimated Kickflip’s once thriving business. Facebook now generates several-hundred-million dollars per year from virtual currency sales that its competitors would have earned. A successful outcome in the case will bring a once vibrant virtual-currency market back to life.

Facebook is represented by the former head of the U.S. Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. You can read the court’s decision at this link. here.

Newman LLP has litigated emerging Internet law issues for 15 years. If your Internet business is suffering due to unlawful anticompetitive conduct, you can reach Derek Newman at 310-359-8200.