(Reuters) — Facebook on Monday temporarily fought a class-action lawsuit worth up to 3 billion pounds ($3.7 billion) over allegations that the social media giant abused its dominant position to make money from users’ personal data.
However, a court in London gave the proposed plaintiffs’ lawyers up to six months to “take another chance” to establish any alleged user losses.
Meta Platforms Inc., the parent company of the Facebook group, is facing a mass action brought on behalf of about 45 million Facebook users in the UK.
Legal academic Liza Lovdahl Gormsen, who brought the case, says Facebook users were not properly compensated for the value of personal data they had to provide to use the platform.
Her lawyers last month asked the Competition Appeal Tribunal to certify the case under the UK̵
7;s collective proceedings regime – roughly equivalent to the class action regime in the US.But the tribunal ruled on Monday that Lovdahl Gormsen’s method of determining any losses suffered by Facebook users needed “root and branch reassessment” for the case to proceed.
However, Judge Marcus Smith gave Lovdahl Gormsen’s lawyers six months to “submit additional evidence setting forth a new and better plan leading to an effective trial.”
A spokesperson for Meta said the company welcomed the decision, referring to its previous statement that the lawsuit is “completely without merit.”
A spokesperson for Lovdahl Gormsen declined to comment.
Source link
