As many as 44 million used of Facebook in the United Kingdom could share £2.3 billion in damages, according to a competition expert planning to sue Facebook’s parent company Meta.

Meta “abuses its market dominance,” according to Dr. Liza Lovdahl Gormsen, by charging an “unfair price” for free use of personal data of users of Facebook’s users in the UK.

She plans to file a complaint with the Competition Appeal Tribunal.

Users had “real control” over what information they supplied, according to a Meta spokesman.

Dr. Lovdahl Gormsen claims that Facebook “abused its market dominance to impose unfair terms and conditions on ordinary Britons, giving it the power to exploit their personal data”

And this data, which was collected between 2015 and 2019, gave the corporation a very detailed picture of their internet usage, allowing them to make “excessive profits.”

Unless they choose to optout, everybody resident in the UK who used Facebook at least once during the period would be included in the claim, she says.

However, the UK’s Supreme Court rejected an optout claim demanding billions of pounds in damages from Google over alleged illegal tracking of millions of iPhones in November, claiming that the problem had been resolved a decade ago.

In that case, the judge ruled that the claimant had failed to show that the data gathering had caused harm to each individual.

However, if damages could be assessed, he did not rule out the potential of future mass-action lawsuits.

“Optout cases are particularly permitted in the Competition Appeal Tribunal,” Dr Lovdahl Gormsen remarked.

“As a result, my case is able to claim damages on behalf of the 44 million British Facebook users affected.”

The charges have been refuted by Meta.

According to the company, people utilise its free services because they find them beneficial and because they have choice over how their data is used.

“People can use our service for free,” a spokesman remarked.

“They choose our services because we deliver value for them and they have meaningful control of what information they share on Meta’s platforms and who with.

“We have invested heavily to create tools that allow them to do so.”

The US Federal Trade Commission recently received permission to sue Meta for violating antitrust laws.

Meta stated that it was confident in its ability to win in court.

(Adapted from Business-Standard.com)