A £3 billion lawsuit brought against Facebook over alleged breaches of data privacy has been given the go ahead by a London judge.
Brought by legal academic Dr Liza Lovdahl Gormsen on the behalf of 45 million Facebook users, the case claims that the social media network abused its market dominance by forcing individuals to share data with third parties as a “condition of accessing the platform”.
The action goes on to claim that Facebook’s requirement for users to share their data from outside platforms breached privacy rules and helped it make vast sums of money by selling more targeted advertising.
The lawsuit is seeking around £2.07 to 3.1billion in compensation for individuals who held Facebook accounts from February 2016 through to October 2023.
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Lovdahl Gormsen’s case was originally refused in 2023, however a revised version of the action has now been accepted, and will be heard by the Competition Appeal Tribunal by early 2026 at the latest.
The Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp owner has said that the claim “remains entirely without merit” and that any resultant legal case will be “vigorously defended”.
In a statement, Meta has said that the “fundamental concerns identified by the tribunal in its February 2023 judgement have not been resolved,” and that it remained “committed to giving people meaningful control” of what information they share across its platforms.
It also stressed the firm’s ongoing commitment to “invest heavily to create tools” that would allow Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp users to retain this control.
