S8 Ep160: PREVIEW — Jessica Melugin (Civitas Outlook) — The Flawed Logic of the FTC's Meta Lawsuit. Melugin argues that the Federal Trade Commission's failed antitrust litigation against Meta Platforms fundamentally abandoned the traditional "consumer welfare stand

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John Batchelor

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🗓️ 3 December 2025

⏱️ 3 minutes

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Summary

PREVIEW — Jessica Melugin (Civitas Outlook) — The Flawed Logic of the FTC's Meta Lawsuit. Melugin argues that the Federal Trade Commission's failed antitrust litigation against Meta Platforms fundamentally abandoned the traditional "consumer welfare standard" governing antitrust jurisprudence, instead prioritizing protection of corporate competitors over demonstrable consumer harm. Melugin emphasizes that because Meta provides innovative digital platforms offering zero-cost access to billions of users, the FTC could not satisfy the burden of proving consumer detriment required to successfully prosecute monopoly charges under established antitrust legal doctrine. Melugincontends that the FTC's regulatory overreach reflects ideological hostility toward successful technology companies rather than coherent consumer protection theory, establishing precedent for prosecuting businesses solely for competitive dominance absent documented consumer injury.

1923 SCOTUS

Transcript

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0:22.8	The Home of Every Kind of Christmas, Denalm.
0:28.0	The Home of Homes.
0:30.7	This is John Batson speaking to colleague Jessica Malugian writing at Civitas Outlook
0:36.4	about the FTC's case against Meta as a monopoly,
0:41.3	and it failing twice once at the end of the Trump administration first term,
0:46.9	and again at the end of the Biden administration.
0:51.2	Why?
0:52.2	Jessica explains, monopoly requires a lot of very careful details such as the consumer.
0:59.7	And in the case that the FTC brought, led by Lena Khan, the consumer wasn't much concerned.
1:06.8	Instead, there was concern with the competition.
1:09.3	Odd.
1:10.0	Jessica explains, antitrust activity with the competition. Odd. Jessica explains.
1:13.0	Antitrust activity in the 21st century handled by the Obama administration, oddly.
1:19.2	More of this tonight.
1:21.1	No, but the logic there presents itself pretty clearly as nonsensical, doesn't it?
1:26.2	Because, you know, the thing about antitrust
1:29.2	law is you're looking for competition. And as long as you have that consumer welfare standard,
1:34.9	then you protect competition because competition is what benefits consumers. But once you get into
1:40.4	benefiting and looking out for competitors, then you see your consumers thrown under
	...

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