Meta calls the FTC ‘unconstitutional’ in brazen lawsuit opposing the regulator’s ban on Facebook profiting from children’s data

Facebook parent company Meta has filed a lawsuit calling the Federal Trade Commission unconstitutional for trying to block the regulator from reopening a consent agreement and blocking the social media giant from profiting from children's data.

In a lawsuit filed late Wednesday in federal court in Washington, D.C., Meta Platforms Inc. said. that it is “exercising the structurally unconstitutional authority exercised by the FTC” in reopening the privacy agreement.

“Meta respectfully requests that this Court declare that certain fundamental aspects of the Commission's structure violate the United States Constitution, and that these violations render the FTC's proceeding against Meta unlawful,” the company says in its complaint.

In addition to the agency, the lawsuit also names Speaker Lina Khan and the two Democratic commissioners, Rebecca Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya, as defendants.

The dispute stems from a 2020 consent agreement Meta struck with the FTC, which also saw the social media giant pay a record $5 billion fine over privacy violations.

In May, the agency said it had reopened the case because Meta allegedly misled parents about, among other things, how much control they had over who their children connected with in the Messenger Kids app.

The FTC has proposed sweeping changes to the agreement, including banning Meta from monetizing data it collects on minors, including data collected through its virtual reality products.

The new lawsuit is part of a battle between Meta and the FTC as the agency works to promote privacy and competition among Big Tech companies, which in turn are trying to halt any changes that could hurt profits to call out.

The company this week filed a separate appeal against Judge Timothy Kelly's ruling that it should be an FTC judge, not a district judge, who decides the case.

Meta's complaint came after the U.S. Supreme Court's conservative majority on Wednesday appeared open to a challenge over how the Securities and Exchange Commission fights fraud in a case that could have far-reaching implications for other regulators.

In addition to the agency, the lawsuit names Speaker Lina Khan (above) and the two Democratic commissioners, Rebecca Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya, as defendants

A majority of the nine-member court suggested that people accused of fraud by the SEC should have the right to have their cases decided by a jury in federal court, rather than by the SEC's internal administrative judges. Meta's lawsuit.

The Meta complaints focus on the agency's dual role: prosecuting a case before an FTC judge. Once the FTC judge makes a decision, it is the commission that votes on whether to accept the decision.

It also claims that the commissioners are “unconstitutionally insulated from removal by the President” and that an FTC trial would not allow for a jury.

U.S. Senator Edward Markey, a frequent critic of Meta and other Big Tech companies, called Meta's lawsuit a “weak attempt to avoid accountability.”

“In the face of a potentially massive fine, Meta's adoption of far-right legal theories to challenge our nation's premier consumer protection agency smacks of desperation,” Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, said in a statement.