The Supreme Court has made a significant decision regarding a multibillion-dollar class action investors' lawsuit against Meta, the parent company of Facebook. This lawsuit stems from the infamous privacy scandal involving Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm.
After hearing arguments in November, the justices have decided to allow the lawsuit to proceed, dismissing Meta's appeal to shut it down. The appellate ruling stands, permitting investors to continue their legal action against Meta.
Investors allege that Meta failed to provide adequate disclosures regarding the risks associated with the misuse of Facebook users' personal information by Cambridge Analytica. This failure, they claim, resulted in two substantial drops in the company's share price in 2018, following revelations about the privacy scandal.
Meta has already faced consequences for the scandal, including a $5.1 billion fine and a $725 million privacy settlement with users. Cambridge Analytica, which had ties to Trump political strategist Steve Bannon, obtained personal data from approximately 87 million Facebook users through a third-party app developer. This data was then used to target American voters during the 2016 presidential campaign.
This lawsuit is one of two high-profile cases before the Supreme Court involving class-action lawsuits against tech companies. The other case involves Nvidia, with investors alleging that the company misled them about its reliance on selling computer chips for cryptocurrency mining.
