Facebook’s parent company, Meta Platforms Inc. META, is proposing a $51 million settlement in response to a class-action lawsuit in Canada. The lawsuit alleges unauthorized use of users’ images in Facebook ads.
What Happened: The lawsuit was initiated by a British Columbia woman who claimed her image, as well as others, were used without consent in Facebook’s “sponsored stories” ad program, BNN Bloomberg reported. The program operated from January 2011 to May 2014 and has since been discontinued.
The lawsuit, initially filed in British Columbia, included residents of Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Newfoundland and Labrador in 2019. MNP Ltd., the court-appointed administrator, confirmed that a B.C. Supreme Court judge needs to approve the settlement proposal, with a hearing scheduled for March.
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MNP stated, “Facebook will pay the all-inclusive sum of $51 million in exchange for a full and final release by the class of all claims in issue in the class action against Facebook.” It’s estimated that approximately 4.3 million people who had their real names or photos used in a sponsored story could be eligible for the settlement in Canada.
Objections to the proposed settlement can be submitted until Mar. 11. If the settlement is approved, a process for class members to claim their portion of the settlement funds will be announced.
Why It Matters: This proposed settlement follows a series of similar lawsuits faced by Meta. In February 2022, the company agreed to pay $90 million to resolve a long-standing data privacy lawsuit.
Later, in August, Meta settled another user privacy violation lawsuit for $37.5 million. Furthermore, Meta agreed to settle a series of class action lawsuits filed against Facebook for allowing private parties like Cambridge Analytica to access users’ private data without their permission. As a part of the settlement, Meta agreed to a payout of $725 million.
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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Photo by DANIEL CONSTANTE on Shutterstock
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