The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit affirmed the dismissal of antitrust claims against Facebook parent company Meta Thursday morning. The dispute, filed by the Federal Trade Commission and nearly every state attorneys general in the nation, alleged that the company's purchase of two other social media platforms amounted to monopolistic abuse. But the appeals court agreed with the district court in finding that the claims came too late.

"Many innovations may seem anti-competitive at first but turn out to be the opposite, and the market often corrects even those that are anti-competitive," wrote Senior D.C. Circuit Judge Arthur Raymond Randolph in the 34-page unanimous opinion. "Similarly, if courts required firms to lend their facilities to competitors, courts would have to manage corporations' business affairs, a role for which the judiciary is ill suited."