Supreme Court Clears Path for Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Against Mark Zuckerberg's Meta

The Supreme Court has opened the door for a multibillion-dollar class-action lawsuit against Meta, Facebook's parent company, tied to the infamous Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal.

The justices had heard arguments last November as Meta sought to halt the lawsuit.

However, on Friday, they reversed course, acknowledging they should not have taken up the case in the first place.

This decision leaves intact a lower court ruling that allows the case to move forward.

The lawsuit claims that Meta failed to adequately inform investors about the risks of Facebook users’ personal data being exploited by Cambridge Analytica, the political consulting firm involved in Donald Trump’s successful 2016 presidential campaign.

Investors argue that insufficient disclosures contributed to two sharp declines in Meta’s stock price in 2018, as the public became aware of the scandal's full scope.

Meta spokesman Andy Stone expressed disappointment in the court’s decision.

“These claims are baseless, and we will continue to defend ourselves as the case proceeds in the District Court,” Stone said in a statement emailed to the press.

Meta has already faced significant financial repercussions, including a $5.1 billion fine and a $725 million privacy settlement with users.

Cambridge Analytica, which had connections to Trump’s former strategist Steve Bannon, acquired personal data from roughly 87 million Facebook users through a third-party app developer. This data was then leveraged to target American voters during the 2016 election.

This lawsuit is one of two class-action cases involving tech companies currently under the Supreme Court's scrutiny. The justices are also deliberating on whether to dismiss a class-action lawsuit against Nvidia, where investors allege the company misrepresented its reliance on computer chip sales for cryptocurrency mining.