Facebook’s £3bn lawsuit given go-ahead

A huge lawsuit against Meta, the owners of Facebook, has been given the go-ahead by a judge in a case estimated to be worth up to £3bn.

The case, which claims “Facebook has struck an unfair bargain with its users,” is being brought by Dr Liza Lovdahl Gormsen on behalf of 45 million Facebook users. She first tried to sue Meta in 2023 but was unsuccessful.

Upon revision, however, the new claim was accepted. This legal action, which can be heard in early 2026 at the very latest, is funded by Innsworth. The company has funded similar mass lawsuits in the past against the likes of Volkswagon, Ericsson, and Mastercard.

An ‘unfair bargain’

According to legal documents, the claimant seeks £2.07-3.1bn compensation for those with Facebook accounts between February 2016 and October 2023. The lawsuit accuses Meta of giving users their data for non-Facebook products, like Instagram and other third-party websites.

The documents claim that sharing data with these third parties became a condition of accessing the Facebook platform, pursuant to the “take-it-or-leave-it’ offer.’

Because of this, the lawsuit claims that UK Facebook users have not been sufficiently compensated for the commercial value their data provides Meta.  This is because Facebook’s business model relies on targeted advertising, which in turn is facilitated by taking and monetizing users’ data.

The case will be heard at the Competition Appeal Tribunal — but Meta is vehemently denying the claims.

The business says the claims “remain entirely without merit” and affirmed that Meta would “vigorously defend against them.”

According to Meta, the “fundamental concerns identified by the tribunal in its February 2023 judgment have not been resolved”.

In legal documents, the business says it is “committed to giving people meaningful control” of the data shared — and claims to “invest heavily to create tools that allow them to do so.”

Featured Image: Photo by Solen Feyissa on Unsplash