Meta lawsuit over Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal to proceed, Supreme Court rules

The U.S. Supreme Court will allow a multibillion-dollar class action lawsuit against Meta for privacy violations stemming from the Cambridge Analytica scandal to move forward.

The ruling on Friday, which allows an appellate court decision to stand, leaves the company behind Facebook and Instagram exposed to huge damages for financial losses investors say they incurred relating to the company’s sale of the private data of millions of its users to the data firm.

Cambridge Analytica had bought the data to peddle psychological profiles of voters to political campaigns.

The decision follows Meta’s arguments before the high court in November to have the lawsuit tossed out. 

Meta investors brought the lawsuit, alleging that inadequate disclosures relating to the abuse of the users’ personal data by Cambridge Analytica fueled a significant drop in the company’s stock prices after the scale of the privacy violations became public.

"The plaintiff's claims are baseless and we will continue to defend ourselves as this case is considered by the District Court," a Meta spokesperson said. "We are disappointed in the Supreme Court's decision not to clarify this part of the law."

In 2019, Facebook settled with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for its role in the Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal, agreeing to pay a record-setting $5 billion and adhere to new restrictions holding it accountable for protecting user privacy. The FTC alleged that Facebook had tricked consumers into believing they had more control over the privacy of their personal data than was true.