The parent company of WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram, Meta Platforms, is facing a lawsuit of more than £2.3 billion ($3.2 billion) in the United Kingdom. The lawsuit follows allegations that Meta abused its market position to gather and exploit the personal data of 44 million users.
A senior adviser with Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Liza Lovdahl-Gormsen filed the case on behalf of British citizens who used Facebook between 2015 and 2019.
The lawsuit states that Facebook allegedly made billions of pounds by imposing unfair terms and conditions on its users. Facebook also demanded that users surrender valuable personal information.
Liza Lovdahl-Gormsen stated that even though Facebook is a popular social network in the United Kingdom for connecting with friends and family. The senior advisor also added, “yet, there was a dark side to Facebook; it abused its market dominance to impose unfair terms and conditions on ordinary Britons, giving it the power to exploit their personal data.”
Lovdahl-Gormsen further stated that Facebook made use of Facebook Pixel to collect the personal data of users. Facebook Pixel is a tool commonly used by businesses and advertisers to track consumer behavior.
Facebook stated that the company used Facebook Pixel as the tool provided value to the company and that Meta has “meaningful control of what information they share on its platforms and who with.”
The lawsuit will be heard by London’s Competition Appeal Tribunal and comes only days after Facebook lost an attempt to strike out an antitrust lawsuit by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
