Green Light Given for Legal Action Against Facebook
A judge ruling in the UK has given the green light for a mass action against Facebook, which may reach £3bn in damages.
The case was made on behalf of 45 million Facebook users. Legal scholar Dr. Liza Lovdahl Gormsen is bringing the case.
Her initial claim was denied in 2023, but it has since been accepted in a revised form. The latest it can be heard is early in 2026.
Meta stated that the case is “entirely without merit and we will vigorously defend against them”.
Take It as It Is or Leave It
A new claim, according to legal documents, stated that “Facebook has struck an unfair bargain with its users.” Users were forced to share their data on Facebook from non-Facebook products, for example Instagram, which is Meta owned, and other third-party websites, Facebook abused the power it was given.
Data sharing with third parties had become “a condition of accessing the Facebook platform, pursuant to a ‘take-it-or-leave-it’ offer”. Although the user doesn’t pay fees to get a Facebook account, the platform does have advertisements. It can target advertisements more efficiently and impose higher fees for the greater data it has about its users.
Essential User Concerns
Compensation of £2.07-3.1bn has been asked for, on behalf of users who had Facebook accounts between the years of 2016 and 2023, as stated by the claim. This will be mentioned at the Competition Appeal Tribunal. Meta made a claim that stated, “fundamental concerns identified by the tribunal in its February 2023 judgement have not been resolved”.
It was also mentioned that it was “committed to giving people meaningful control” of the information they shared on its platforms and to “invest heavily to create tools that allow them to do so.”
Innsworth, an organization supported by an investment management fund, is banrolling the current lawsuit. The company has previously contributed to large-scale legal actions against Mastercard, Ericsson, and Volkswagen. Last year in 2023, Facebook users in the US received a $725 million (£583 million) payout from Meta in a privacy case.
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