Facebook Faces Multibillion £ Class Action Suit for Abuse of Market Dominance in UK

Groundbreaking effort seeks financial redress for data exploitation of 44 million users

WASHINGTON— Lawyers in the U.K. filed a $3.2 billion class-action lawsuit against Facebook, alleging the corporation overcharged users for services by failing to fairly value the data it collects on individuals.

The lawsuit was led by Liza Lovdahl-Gormsen, a long-time ally of the Open Markets Institute and a member of our advisory board. Lovdahl-Gormsen is also Senior Advisor to the UK Financial Conduct Authority.

In response, Open Markets executive director Barry Lynn released the following statement in reference to the case: 

“Today’s lawsuit against Facebook marks a big step forward for democracy in the UK and around the world. It demonstrates that private citizens can use the law to protect themselves and the public as a whole, even when government has been slow to act.

“The action demonstrates the importance of a 2015 decision to establish a right to bring private class-action lawsuits in Britain and helps light the way towards similar UK actions against other monopolists. The action also serves as a challenge to Americans to fight the multi-decade effort by monopolists to eliminate collective litigation and to protect and strengthen our two-century-old right to act directly against economic and political threats posed by private corporations.”

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