US District Judge James Donato’s ruling in San Francisco allows millions of individuals and businesses to potentially sue as a group who have used ads on Facebook and its photo-sharing app Instagram since August 15, 2014. had paid.
Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
He also said that senior Facebook executives had known for years that the company’s “potential reach” metric was inflated by duplicate and fake accounts, yet did nothing about it and took steps to cover it up.
After calling META’s “blunderbuss” objections to class certification, Donato rejected the argument that the class was too diverse, including “large sophisticated corporations” as well as individuals and small businesses, and that the loss was calculated. will be very difficult.
Donato also said that it makes sense to let the individual plaintiffs sue as a group, given that “no reasonable person” would sue Meta individually to recover at a maximum $32 price premium. .
The judge is expected to consider Meta’s bid to dismiss the lawsuit later this year.