An opposition filing submitted late last week by non-party Snap Inc., operator of the social media app SnapChat, claims that Meta Platforms is making unreasonable discovery requests. The filing comes as the Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust case against Meta is embroiled in other discovery issues, including one that ended in favor of the government over interagency memoranda concerning Meta-then-Facebook’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp.
According to Meta’s motion, Snap has documents that will aid in its market definition defense. Specifically, its motion to compel claims that information about Snap’s view of competitors will shed light on the interchangeability of social networking products and ultimately help Meta prove that there is no “industry or public recognition” of the personal social networking services (PSNS) market. Meta says its requests have been reasonable while “Snap has stonewalled and delayed.”
In last week’s filing, Snap disagreed. Of the 46 numbered document requests, including more than 150 subparts, Snap said that many are among its “most competitively sensitive documents, with only marginal potential relevance to this case.” The company claimed that the burden Meta will impose in its quest for documents relating to the competitive landscape, challenged conduct, metrics and data, and cloud infrastructure, is both “enormous and inappropriate for a non-party in Snap’s position to bear.”
Instead, Snap asked that the court deny Meta’s motion as overbroad and unduly burdensome, order that Snap produce highly sensitive documents with a confidentiality designation, and require Meta to pay Snap’s compliance costs.
Snap is represented by Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati P.C. and Meta by Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP and Kellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel & Frederick P.L.L.C.
