44 million UK Facebook users could receive compensation as Meta sued for £2.3bn
The legal action centres around "unfair" terms and conditions
Last updated 14th Jan 2022
Over 44 million UK users could receive compensation from Facebook if a legal case brought against the company is successful.
The social media network, whose parent company is now called Meta, is being brought to court in the UK over 'unfair' terms and conditions forced upon its users.
Legal action against the firm - the first of its kind in the UK - was launched by competition law expert Dr Liza Lovdahl Gormsen, saying that Facebook is monopolising the market.
Dr Gormsen is seeking compensation of a minimum of £2.3 billion in damages, arguing that the company forced users to accept terms and conditions that generated billions of pounds in revenue.
The claim focuses on Facebook's collection of user data from October 1st, 2015 to December 31st, 2019 - where at least 44 million people in the UK had used the site at least once.
However, while Meta earned money off its users data, those using the social media network were not reimbursed, which has been labelled 'an unfair deal' by the plaintiff.
Speaking about the claim, Dr Gormsen warned of the 'dark side' of the social media platform: "In the 17 years since it was created, Facebook became the sole social network in the UK where you could be sure to connect with friends and family in one place.
"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.
"I'm launching this case to secure billions of pounds of damages for the 44 million Britons who had their data exploited by Facebook."
Responding to the case, a spokesperson from Meta said: "People access our service for free. They choose our services because we deliver value for them and they have meaningful control of what information they share on Meta's platforms and who with.
"We have invested heavily to create tools that allow them to do so."
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