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UK tribunal green-lights $2.7B Facebook collective action antitrust lawsuit
- Facebook has lost a bid to have a £2.1bn+ mammoth collective action-style competition lawsuit thrown out, which seeks damages worth a minimum of some $2.7bn at current exchange rates.
- The suit, led by competition law expert Dr. Liza Lovdahl Gormsen, alleges that Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram exploited UK users’ personal data due to their market dominance in social networking.
- Lovdahl Gormsen argues that Facebook's data collection practices involve an 'unfair trading condition', and as users have no real alternative, the company imposes an unfairly high price on users and their information.
- The class action lawsuit covers 46 million users of Meta services in the UK between February 14, 2016, and October 6, 2023.
- The “opt out” collective action has already been nearly three years in the making, and it has been certified by the UK's Competition Appeal Tribunal.
- The case is notable for its potential impact on how competition law might be applied by individuals in their own legal actions and in other class-action-style antitrust suits.
- If successful, the case could set a precedent for how data exploitation applies under competition laws. It also places a monetary value on personal data.
- Lovdahl Gormsen is represented by Quinn Emanuel, and the case is being funded by Innsworth, one of the world's biggest litigation funders.
- Facebook users in the UK are automatically opted into the collective claim unless they actively opt-out if they do not wish to be included in any potential damages or financial settlement.
- The litigation will proceed to trial, and the plaintiffs are seeking damages ranging from £2.1bn to £3.1bn.
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