Dutch court finds Facebook misused data in class action lawsuit: Report
A Dutch court hearing the class action case on Wednesday found that Meta’s European subsidiary Facebook Ireland misused the personal data of Dutch citizens between 2010 and 2020 and said the company had “broken the law”.
“Personal data has been processed for advertising, although this is not permitted in this case,” the Amsterdam court’s decision reads.
“Personal information was disclosed to third parties without notification to Facebook users and without a legal basis.”
The decision targeted Facebook Ireland because it is part of the company that oversees the processing of Dutch user data. The case has not yet progressed to the stage where damages could be claimed.
A Meta spokesman said the company was “satisfied” with parts of the ruling but plans to appeal others, noting that some of the allegations date back more than a decade.
“We know that privacy is important to our Dutch users and we want them to be in control of how their data is used,” the person said.
A spokesman for the plaintiff, Data Privacy Stichting, said the group now hopes to sit down with Facebook to negotiate a settlement.
It’s “a pretty big decision and we’re obviously very happy,” said spokesman Gerard Spierenburg.
“We think this is a very strong signal not only for Facebook, but for all companies that illegally use their users’ data.”
The Data Privacy Group was founded in 2020 as a collaboration between a group of law firms and the Dutch Consumers’ Association to seek compensation for damages.
Spierenburg said 190,000 had signed up to the initiative, but any of the roughly 10 million Dutch people who used Facebook in that period could join if the case moves to the damages stage.
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