Judge says “no fundamental right to use Facebook,” tosses antitrust case

U.S. District Judge Cathy Ann Bencivengo ruled that Facebook has the right to exclude users if they install a program that alters the look of its website and swaps out its ad offerings.

In a ruling issued in San Diego, Judge Bencivengo dismissed an antitrust complaint filed by Sambreel, a controversial advertising company that offers products with names like PageRage that let users tweak the look of their Facebook page. The companies got in a bitter fight earlier this year after Facebook “gated” users who had downloaded the Sambreel products — meaning the users had to remove PageRage software before they could log on to the social network. Sambreel responded with an aggressive legal and public relations campaign, arguing that Facebook broke antitrust laws.

Judge Bencivengo, however, was having none of this:
There is no fundamental right to use Facebook; users may only obtain a Facebook account upon agreement that they will comply with Facebook’s terms, which is unquestionably permissible under the antitrust laws. It follows, therefore, that Facebook is within its rights to require that its users disable certain products before using its website.