Meta defeats antitrust lawsuit over Facebook user data

By Mike Scarcella

Sept 30 (Reuters) - Facebook owner Meta Platforms META.O convinced a federal judge in San Francisco to throw out a lawsuit that accused the company of misleading users about its privacy practices in order to maintain dominance in the social media market.

U.S. District Judge James Donato on Monday granted summary judgment to Meta, canceling a trial that had been set for November. The judge's order barred a key expert from testifying for the plaintiffs, leaving them unable to prove harm.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs, three Facebook users, declined to comment.

Meta in a statement said the ruling “confirms what we have known from the beginning — the plaintiffs’ claims are without merit.”

The lawsuit claimed that Meta misrepresented its data protection practices to gain consumer trust and suppress competition. The plaintiffs argued that Facebook users merited pay for handing over their data to use the platform. They had planned to call CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the trial, according to court records.

Meta denied the claims, telling the court that it is not a monopolist and that it competes fairly with platforms including YouTube and TikTok.

Donato in January rejected the plaintiffs’ efforts to band together to sue as a class action, drastically limiting the scope of the case. The judge said the plaintiffs could not rely on an expert’s findings that Meta would have paid its users $5 a month for their personal data in a competitive market.

The plaintiffs at trial wanted a court order that they said would restore competition in the personal social networking space. They also sought compensatory damages of about $240 per plaintiff.

Meta still faces a related antitrust lawsuit from advertisers who allege they paid inflated prices for marketing on Facebook. Donato has not yet ruled on whether that case can proceed as a class action.

The case is Maximilian Klein et al v. Meta Platforms, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 3:20-cv-08570-JD.

For user plaintiffs: Shana Scarlett of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro and Kevin Teruya of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan

For Meta: Sonal Mehta, David Gringer and Ari Holtzblatt of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr

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