Social media giant Facebook parent company Meta is facing a class action in the United Kingdom with a claim value of more than 2.3 billion pounds (about 3.2 billion US dollars), the company is accused of abusing its market dominance, using 44 million. User’s personal data.
Liza Lovdahl Gormsen, a senior adviser to Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and a competition law academic, said she brought the case on behalf of Britons who used Facebook between 2015 and 2019. The lawsuit will be heard by the Competition Appeals Tribunal in London.
Facebook has made billions of pounds by imposing unfair terms and conditions requiring consumers to hand over valuable personal data to access the network, the lawsuit claims.
“In the 17 years since it was created, Facebook has been the only social network in the UK where you can connect with friends and family in one place,” says Gomson. “However, Facebook also has a dark side. It abuses its market dominance. status and impose unfair terms and conditions on ordinary Britons giving them the right to use their personal data.”
Facebook said people use its services because the company brings value to them and “they have effective control over what information is shared on Meta’s platform and with whom.”
Just a few days ago, Facebook’s attempt to block the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) from launching an antitrust lawsuit against it suffered a setback in one of the biggest U.S. government challenges to a tech company in decades. Currently, the U.S. government is trying to limit the broad market power that big tech companies have.