A newsletter by Reuters and Westlaw |
|
|
An $8 billion trial will begin today in Wilmington, Delaware, seeking to hold Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and leaders liable for the company's privacy shortcomings. Here's what to know: |
|
|
- Meta shareholders sued Zuckerberg and other current and former company leaders, saying they continually violated a 2012 agreement between Facebook and the FTC to protect users' data.
- The case dates back to 2018, after it emerged that data from millions of Facebook users was accessed by Cambridge Analytica, a now-defunct political consulting firm that worked for President Trump's successful campaign for U.S. president in 2016.
- Shareholders want Zuckerberg and the other defendants to reimburse the company for more than $8 billion in fines and other costs paid by Meta after the Cambridge Analytica scandal came to light, including a record $5 billion fine imposed on Facebook by the FTC in 2019 for violating the 2012 agreement.
- Zuckerberg is expected to appear as a star witness and is accused of operating Facebook as an illegal enterprise that allowed users' data to be harvested without their consent.
- Other defendants in the case include former Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, venture capitalist and board member Marc Andreessen, as well as former board members Peter Thiel, the Palantir Technologies co-founder, and Reed Hastings, the co-founder of Netflix.
- Two years ago, the defendants sought to dismiss the case before trial, which the judge declined. "This is a case involving alleged wrongdoing on a truly colossal scale," said Travis Laster, the judge handling the case at the time. The trial in the Court of Chancery will be overseen by Kathaleen McCormick.
- The non-jury trial is scheduled to last eight days. While the trial will cover long-ago policies, it comes as privacy concerns continue to dog Meta, which is under scrutiny for its training of AI models. The company says it has invested billions of dollars since 2019 in its program to safeguard users' privacy.
- Read more about the trial here.
|
Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes. |
|
|
As women's fertility app maker Flo Health and co-defendant Meta are set to face a class action trial in San Francisco federal court next week for allegedly violating the privacy of millions of Flo users, the question now is whether the companies will cut a deal or risk what Flo on appeal termed "mind-boggling" damages. In On the Case, Jenna Greene digs into the litigation -- and how in theory the penalty for violating California's invasion of Privacy Act could top quadrillion, with a q, dollars. Read more here. |
|
|
Haynes Boone's David McCombs and Jonathan Bowser lay out the new scope of IPR estoppel based on a recent Federal Circuit decision. Read today's Attorney Analysis. |
Additional writing by Shruthi Krishnamurthy. |
|
|
The Daily Docket is sent 5 days a week. Think your friend or colleague should know about us? Forward this newsletter to them. They can also sign up here. Want to stop receiving this email? Unsubscribe here. To manage which newsletters you're signed up for, click here. This email includes limited tracking for Reuters to understand whether you've engaged with its contents. For more information on how we process your personal information and your rights, please see our Privacy Statement. Terms & Conditions |
|
|
|
0 Komentar untuk "$8 billion Meta trial kicks off in Delaware"