E-commerce platform eBay Inc on Monday asked a U.S. judge to block a bid by Meta Platforms Inc for testimony from an eBay corporate official as the social media giant seeks rivals’ information to counter a Federal Trade ulasan film Commission antitrust lawsuit.
EBay’s lawyers from Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan said in a filing in San Francisco federal court that Meta is demanding confidential business information about eBay’s privacy policies, data retention and other topics that are not relevant to the FTC’s monopoly claims.
The subpoena fight is the latest flashpoint in Meta’s campaign to squeeze information from other technology and social media companies in advance of a possible trial next year against the FTC.
Meta has faced some resistance from other companies that said its demands for information were too broad or invasive. In November, a judge ruled Sequoia Capital could not quash subpoenas from Meta seeking information about how the venture capital firm analysed the photo-sharing site Instagram and the messaging service WhatsApp before Meta bought them.
“Meta’s discovery gluttony confirms its request of eBay is not worthy of the burden Meta seeks to impose,” eBay’s lawyers told the California court. “The breadth of the subpoena,” they said, “is alarming.”
A Meta spokesperson said in a statement that the company is “seeking information from companies with which we compete or which we believe have information relating to the FTC’s claims.”