WASHINGTON (AP) – In response to the Cambridge Analytica political consulting business privacy controversy, the Supreme Court announced on Monday that it would consider dismissing a multibillion-dollar class action case filed by investors against Facebook parent Meta.
The justices consented to hear Meta’s appeal of a decision rendered by a subordinate court that permitted the class action to proceed. Investors claim that Meta failed to adequately disclose the possibility that Cambridge Analytica, a company that helped Donald Trump win the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, would misuse the personal information of Facebook users.
Investors claim that when the public became aware of the scope of the privacy problem in 2018, the company’s shares saw two notable price declines due to inadequate disclosures.
Fall is when the case will be argued.
Meta has already settled a $725 million privacy lawsuit with users and paid a $5.1 billion fine.
Cambridge Analytica had ties to Trump political strategist Stephen Bannon. It had paid a Facebook app developer for access to the personal information of about 87 million Facebook users. That data was then used to target U.S. voters during the 2016 campaign.
