The Federal Trade Commission will not appeal the court ruling rejecting its attempt to block the acquisition of VR fitness company Within by Facebook and parent company Meta. The regulator’s decision marks a major win for Meta and draws renewed scrutiny on the agency’s capacity to successfully bring similar antitrust cases aimed at limiting Big Tech’s market dominance.

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American Economic Liberties Project Legal Council Lee Hepner bolstered the FTC’s optimistic outlook telling Gizmodo the decision not to appeal is, “a smart and strategic move by the FTC.”

“The FTC largely achieved its objective of advancing the legal theory, and only lost on a narrow fact-specific determination,” Hepner said “A reviewing court would be deferential to Judge Davila’s findings of fact, and it’s not worth it for the FTC to risk losing their legal wins on appeal.”

Hepner went on to say the case “vindicates” the FTC and DOJ’s stated approachof bringing forward challenging real world cased to advancement legal theories.

“In that sense, this was a win for the FTC,” Hepner said.