Facebook was to be the subject of a multi-million dollar class action lawsuit filed on Friday by a British competition law expert, alleging that the US social network abused its dominant position with “unfair” terms.
Liza Lovdahl Gormsen will file a lawsuit against Facebook owner Meta in Britain’s Antitrust Court of Appeals seeking a minimum of £ 2.3 billion ($ 3.2 billion, 2.8 billion euros) in damages to users of the UK-based site, according to a Gormsen statement.
The academic, a former adviser to the UK Financial Conduct Authority’s watchdog, alleges that Facebook abused its dominance of the market to force UK users to agree to the terms and conditions that allowed it to generate income from its data.
Gormsen argues that this was an “unfair treatment” because it allowed “intrusive collection” of data without monetary benefit to users, the statement added.
The landmark claim, which would be the first of its kind in Britain, seeks financial compensation for 44 million UK Facebook users between 2015 and 2019.
Gormsen maintains that Facebook collected data both on its own platform and through advertising tools to monitor how users behave on the site.
“In the 17 years since it was created, Facebook became the only social network in the UK where you could be sure to connect with friends and family in one place,” Gormsen said in the statement.
“However, Facebook had a dark side: it abused its dominance of the market to impose unfair terms and conditions on ordinary Britons, giving it the power to exploit their personal data.”
Gormsen said he was “launching this case to secure billions of pounds in damages for the 44 million Britons whose data was exploited by Facebook.”
In response, Meta emphasized that Facebook was a free service, adding that users retain “significant control” over their shared information.
“People access our service for free. They choose our services because we provide them with value and they have significant control over what information they share on Meta’s platforms and with whom, ”said a statement.
“We have invested a lot to create tools that allow them to do so.”
Source Credit: TheGuardian
