Meta is facing a $3.2 billion class action suit in the United Kingdom over allegations that social media giant Facebook had abused its stature in the industry by exploiting personal data of 44 million UK users for financial gain.
The Meta lawsuit accused Facebook of violating the 1998 Competition Act in the U.K., pegging an "unfair price" as they signed up for the social media platform.
Meta Lawsuit Alleges Britons Forced to Surrender Personal Data for FB's Profit
Great Britain Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) senior adviser Dr. Liza Lovdahl Gormsen filed the Facebook UK lawsuit on behalf of the British people, who had used Facebook from 2015 to 2019.
It alleged that Facebook had raked in billions of pounds in profits by forcing U.K. users to agree to unfair terms and conditions that necessitated surrendering valuable user personal data just to access the network.
The Competition Appeal Tribunal in London is set to hear the case. Gormsen's lawyers from Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan has notified Facebook of the case.
Facebook has been the main social media in the U.K., with allied services such as Instagram and WhatsApp taking a large share of users in the market. Gormsen charged that Facebook monitored the habits of users across these social media platforms and "abused its market dominance" by setting "unfair terms and conditions" that gives it the "power to exploit personal data" of ordinary Britons.
Gormsen told The Guardian that Facebook exploits users by "taking their personal data without properly compensating them." She said users may not have not understood clearly how "unfair" Facebook's terms and conditions were when they signed on.
This case against Facebook is described as an "opt-out" class action suit, wherein users could receive damages if it succeeds in court even if they don't join the case, unless they opt out.
Facebook: Users Have 'Meaningful Control' Over Data They Share
In response to the charges, Facebook told Reuters that its users benefit from their free service because it delivers value, adding that they have "meaningful control" of what information they want to share and with whom they want to share it on all Meta platforms.
The U.K. class action suit comes days after Facebook failed to block a U.S. anti-trust lawsuit filed by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC). This is one of the U.S. government's largest anti-trust cases against a tech firm in decades in its bid to control their broadening market reach.
Gormsen said that while Facebook has been beneficial for users to connect with friends and family, it has a "dark side," referring to the abuse on its users in forcing to surrender their personal data for profit. Gormsen said Facebook gathers data within its platform and through other channels, such as Facebook Pixel, which she said offers them an "all-seeing picture" of Internet usage metrics and deep-data profiles of users to attract advertisers--the company's primary source of income.
