Judge Beth Labson Freeman of the Northern District of California issued an order on Thursday determining that the different Facebook antitrust lawsuits should not be related to the Reveal Chat Holdco lawsuit.
Previously, Facebook users in the Klein lawsuit sought to relate Facebook antitrust lawsuits into two categories based on the plaintiffs: one for consumers and one for app developers and advertisers. However, Facebook and another Facebook user lawsuit opposed this move. Specifically, Facebook argued that the Klein plaintiffs have sought to avoid relating their lawsuit to the Reveal Chat lawsuit, which is brought against Facebook by third-party app developers. Facebook contended that the allegations in both lawsuits are similar and should be related. In December, Facebook filed a motion to relate the lawsuits to the Reveal Chat suit.
Judge Freeman found that “the proposed classes and market definitions differ significantly from the present case such that relation is not appropriate.” However, Judge Freeman did not comment on whether the other cases could be related to each other. Now the judge in the Klein lawsuit must rule on the plaintiffs’ motion.
