Facebook and its parent company, Meta Platforms, will pay more than $90 million as well as delete “wrongfully collected” data to settle decade-long multidistrict litigation alleging the social media behemoth unlawfully tracked users’ browsing activity while logged out, according to documents filed in California federal court late Monday.
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If approved, the proposed settlement would be among the 10 largest data privacy class settlements in U.S. history and will also resolve a parallel class action in California state court.
The deal comes less than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court’s March 2021 decline to review the Ninth Circuit’s revival of the dispute, in which Facebook asserted that the decision threatened to unfairly expose online companies to sweeping liability for “routine business activity.”
The newly announced deal would provide relief to a nationwide class of Facebook users who had active accounts between April 22, 2010, and Sept. 26, 2011, and whose internet use was tracked when they weren’t logged in. Facebook would also be tasked with establishing a non-reversionary settlement fund of $90 million to be distributed equally among class members.
“This settlement not only repairs harm done to Facebook users but sets a precedent for the future disposition of such matters,” said David Straite, co-lead counsel for the users.
The settlement also necessitates that Facebook “sequester and delete” all data that it “wrongfully collected” from users during the class period.
“I’ve been involved in more than a few data privacy matters in which the defendant would only consider monetary relief or window-dressing injunctive relief,” Straite said. “We applaud Facebook’s willingness to also delete the user data that we alleged was improperly collected.”
The dispute dates back to February 2021, when dozens of lawsuits, filed in states across the country, were consolidated in California federal court.
The case had been dismissed by U.S. District Judge Edward Davila in June 2017, but was revived in April 2020 by a federal appeals court, which said users could try to prove that the California-based media giant profited unjustly and violated their privacy.
Facebook then attempted to persuade the Supreme Court to weigh in on the case, ultimately failing and handling the case at the district level.
The company denied wrongdoing but settled to avoid the costs and risks of a trial, according to settlement papers.
Settling “is in the best interest of our community and our shareholders and we’re glad to move past this issue,” Meta spokesman Drew Pusateri said in an email.
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Source: https://www.law360.com/articles/1465215/facebook-to-pay-90m-to-settle-suit-over-tracking-users
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