Facebook seeks to block $3.7 billion UK class action lawsuit

LONDON Reuters asked a London tribunal to block a collective lawsuit worth up to 3 billion pounds $3.7 billion over allegations that the social media giant abused its dominant position to monetise users' personal data.

Legal academic Liza Lovdahl Gormsen, who is bringing the case, said Facebook users were not properly compensated for the value of personal data they had to provide to use the platform.

Her lawyers said that users should get compensation for the economic value they would have received if Facebook was not in a dominant position in the market for social networks.

Meta said the lawsuit was completely without merit and should not be allowed to proceed. Its lawyers said the losses ignore the economic value that Facebook provides.

The case is being referred to by Lovdahl Gormsen's lawyers on Monday, according to the Competition Appeal Tribunal in the UK's collective proceedings regime, which is roughly equivalent to the class action regime in the United States.

A decision to certify collective proceedings depends on whether the tribunal decides that individual cases can be dealt with together rather than on merits.

Ronit Kreisberger, representing Lovdahl Gormsen, told the tribunal that Meta's data practices are in violation of the prohibition on abusive conduct by dominant firms. There is unquestionably a case for Meta to answer at trial, Kreisberger argued.

Lawyers for Meta said the suit wrongly assumed that any excess profits it might make equate to a financial loss suffered by individual Facebook users.

This approach doesn't take into account the significant economic value of the service provided by Facebook Marie Demetriou, as stated in court documents.

She said Lovdahl Gormsen's estimate of potential claimants total losses of 3 billion pounds, including interest, is at the very least wildly inflated.