Mark Zuckerberg and current and former directors and officers of Meta Platforms have reached a settlement agreement to resolve claims seeking $8 billion for alleged damages caused by repeated privacy violations of Facebook users. The settlement details were not disclosed, and defense lawyers did not speak during the proceedings in front of Delaware judge Kathaleen McCormick, who adjourned the trial and commended the parties involved.
The plaintiffs’ attorney, Sam Closic, mentioned that the agreement was swiftly reached. The trial, which was in its second day, had billionaire venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, a Meta director and a defendant in the case, scheduled to testify.
Shareholders of Meta filed a lawsuit against Zuckerberg, Andreessen, and other former company officials, citing the financial penalties and legal expenses incurred by Facebook following the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The scandal involved the unauthorized access of data from millions of Facebook users by the now-defunct consulting firm. This included a $5 billion fine imposed by the Federal Trade Commission in 2019 for Facebook’s failure to adhere to a 2012 data protection agreement with the regulator.
The shareholders sought reimbursement from the 11 defendants using their personal assets, a claim the defendants refuted as “extreme.” Meta, formerly known as Facebook, was not a defendant in the case, and the company declined to comment on the matter. The defendants’ lawyer did not provide an immediate response to requests for comments.
Notably, the settlement was seen as a missed opportunity for public accountability, according to Jason Kint, head of Digital Content Next. The trial was expected to feature testimonies from Zuckerberg, Sandberg, and other prominent figures, shedding light on the oversight of Facebook’s compliance with the FTC agreement and allegations of illegal data practices.
The lawsuit stemmed from the revelations of data misuse by Cambridge Analytica in 2018, leading to a record FTC fine. Despite the settlement, concerns remain about the larger implications of the privacy breach and the handling of personal data by tech companies.