Facebook wins 45 million Britons in court – 02/20/2023 – Tech

This Monday (20), Facebook won, on a provisional basis, the judgment of a collective action valued at up to 3 billion pounds (R$ 19.2 billion in current quotations). Some 45 million UK users claim the social networking giant abused its market dominance to make money off their personal data.

A London court has given litigants’ lawyers up to six months to try again to demonstrate any losses claimed by users.

The antitrust lawsuit is filed against Meta Platforms Inc., the parent company of the Facebook group.

Law scholar Liza Lovdahl Gormsen, who initiated the mobilization behind the lawsuit, says Facebook users were not properly compensated for the amount of personal data they had to provide to use the platform.

His lawyers asked the Competition Appeal Tribunal last month to certify the case under the UK’s class action regime – similar to public civil actions in Brazil, which aim to hold accountable those who cause harm to the community.

In the second, the Court ruled, however, that Gormsen’s method of discriminating losses suffered by Facebook users needed to be completely revised before the case could continue.

Still, Judge Marcus Smith gave Gormsen’s defense six months to “present additional evidence establishing a new and better plan for an effective trial.”

A spokesman for Meta said the company welcomed the verdict and referred to its earlier statement that the lawsuit is “utterly without merit”.

Lawyers representing Lovdahl Gormsen did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment.