WASHINGTON (AP) – The Supreme Court said on Monday it will consider settling a multibillion-dollar investor class action lawsuit against Facebook parent Meta stemming from the privacy scandal involving the Cambridge Analytics political consulting firm.
The justices agreed to hear Meta’s appeal of a lower court ruling that allowed the class action lawsuit to move forward. Investors allege that Meta did not fully disclose the risks that Facebook users’ personal information would be misused by Cambridge Analytica, a company that supported Donald Trump’s successful 2016 Republican presidential campaign.
Inadequate disclosures led to two significant drops in the company’s share price in 2018 after the public became aware of the extent of the privacy scandal, investors say.
The case will be discussed in the fall.
Meta has already paid a US$5.1 billion fine and reached a US$725 million privacy agreement with users.
Cambridge Analytica had ties to Trump political strategist Stephen Bannon. It paid a Facebook app developer to gain access to the personal information of about 87 million Facebook users. This data was then used to target US voters during the 2016 campaign.
