Facebook Faces $3.2Bln Legal Action In UK Over Abuse Of Market Dominance

LONDON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th January, 2022) UK competition law expert Liza Lovdahl Gormsen announced on Friday that she has brought a class-action lawsuit against Facebook's parent company Meta for allegedly forcing UK users to accept aggressive data collection practices if they wanted to sign up for the social network.

"I am launching a major class-action claim against Meta for abusing its market dominance for a minimum of �2.3 billion damages on behalf of affected UK Facebook users," Lovdahl Gormsen, who is also director of the Competition Law Forum, wrote on Twitter.

The case argues that Facebook has forced UK users to accept unfair terms and conditions "on a take it or leave basis" to access its social network in exchange for users' highly valuable personal data, and zero monetary recompense.

"By exploiting users' data, both within the Facebook platform and off-platform through mechanisms like the Facebook Pixel, the company was able to build very detailed pictures of users' internet usage. By using deep data profiles of its users, the company generated excessive profits," the legal team working on the case said in a statement.

The class action, brought under the Competition Act, will be the first of its kind against Meta in the UK and it is being handled by law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan,� with the support of some of country's most prominent competition lawyers, barristers and economists.