After TikTok, the Dutch foundation is targeting Facebook with a billion-dollar claim

This article was published on Ad.nl on October 25th, 2023.

The Dutch Market Information Research Foundation (SOMI) is launching a claim against Facebook parent company Meta Platforms due to privacy violations on the social media platform. The foundation, which previously started a case against TikTok, says it is claiming 10.5 billion euros for all Dutch Facebook users and is calling on people to register for a procedure.

This is an issue for which Facebook was already fined 265 million euros by the Irish privacy watchdog DPC last year. A few years ago, the data of more than half a billion Facebook users around the world was leaked to hackers, who then stole it and even offered phone numbers for sale.

According to SOMI, Meta 'has violated privacy legislation on a large scale by giving unauthorized persons access to the personal data of Facebook users'. The leak could affect more than 5 million people in the Netherlands. 

Data breach

According to SOMI, every Dutch user should therefore receive a 500 euro compensation. For every Dutch user affected by the data breach in April 2021, compensation should be 1,000 euros, the foundation believes.

Meta office in the Netherlands could not be reached for comments. The United States headquarters has not yet responded to a request for comment.

The case against the popular app TikTok revolves around the collection of children's data so that targeted advertisements are shown without proper consent being required. Parents believe that the app does not properly protect the safety and privacy of their offspring and, according to a monthly statement from SOMI, want a total of up to 1.4 billion euros in compensation.

Two other foundations are also involved in the case, the Take Back Your Privacy Foundation and the Massaschade en Consument Foundation. They would first have to sort out agreements with their process financiers. If they are also declared representatives, one of the foundations must be appointed as lead plaintiff.

Read full article (in Dutch): https://www.ad.nl/tech/na-tiktok-richt-nederlandse-stichting-pijlen-op-eigenaar-facebook-met-miljardenclaim~a5656d1a/