The Supreme Court will consider a request from Meta to halt a class action lawsuit against the company brought by investors related to the Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal, the court said on Monday.
The lawsuit centers on investor allegations that the Facebook parent company failed to disclose how Facebook users' personal data would be misused by the company Cambridge Analytica, which backed former President Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.
The investors claim that Meta's handling of the scandal has led to declines in the company's price.
The highest court will review a lower court's ruling that allowed the case to proceed.
Separately, Meta has already paid a $5.1 billion fine to federal regulators and reached a $725 million privacy settlement with users over the same Cambridge Analytica data breach.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals allowed the case to proceed, but in Meta's request for Supreme Court review, the company argued that the lower court's rule “reflects a misguided view of falsity and the nature of risk, and is inconsistent with the demands of Congress. efforts to rein in private securities lawsuits.”
However, the investors argued in response to Meta's offer that the case does not warrant review because it is “based on a mischaracterization of what the Ninth Circuit held” and because it is “not inconsistent with any decision” of the Supreme Court or every circuit.
The fate of the revision could affect the rules surrounding business information.
