WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is allowing a multibillion-dollar class action lawsuit to be filed against Facebook parent company Meta over the privacy scandal involving political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica.
The justices heard arguments in November in Meta’s attempt to halt the lawsuit. On Friday, they decided it was wrong to take the case at all.
The Supreme Court rejected the company’s appeal and upheld an appeal ruling that allowed the case to proceed.
Investors allege Meta failed to fully disclose the risks of Facebook users’ personal information being misused by Cambridge Analytica, a company that backed Donald Trump’s first successful Republican presidential campaign in 2016.
The inadequacy of the disclosures led to two significant price drops in the company’s shares in 2018 after the public learned about the extent of the privacy scandal, the investors say.
Meta has already paid a $5.1 billion fine and reached a $725 million privacy settlement with users.
Cambridge Analytica had ties to Trump political strategist Steve 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 American voters during the 2016 campaign.
The lawsuit is one of two high court cases involving class action lawsuits against technology companies. The judges are also grappling with whether to halt a class action against Nvidia. Investors say the company misled them about its reliance on the sale of computer chips to mine volatile cryptocurrency.
