Facebook must face $3.7 bln UK mass action over market dominance, tribunal rules

Facebook must face a collective lawsuit valued at around 3 billion pounds ($3.77 billion) over allegations the social media giant abused its dominant position to monetise users' personal data, a London tribunal ruled on Thursday.

Legal academic Liza Lovdahl Gormsen, who is bringing the case on behalf of around 45 million Facebook users in the UK, says users were not properly compensated for the value of personal data they had to provide.

The Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) initially refused to give the go-ahead to the case against Facebook's parent company Meta Platforms Inc, which has previously said the lawsuit is "entirely without merit".

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But the CAT ruled on Thursday that a revised claim put forward by Gormsen's lawyers should be allowed to proceed towards a trial.

Judge Marcus Smith said in a written ruling that a final hearing in the case could be heard in "the first half of 2026 at the latest".

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