Meta investors reach settlement with Zuckerberg over US$8b lawsuit
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The news: Mark Zuckerberg and Meta directors (current and former) agreed to settle claims seeking USD8 billion ($12.34 billion) over damages they allegedly caused the company through violations of Facebook users’ privacy.
The context: A lawyer representing shareholders told a Delaware judge on Thursday that the parties had reached the agreement without specifying details of the settlement, Reuters reports.
Meta shareholders had sued Zuckerberg, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg and other company officials in efforts to hold them liable for billions of dollars in fines and legal costs incurred by the company in recent years. The defendants denied the allegations, which they called "extreme claims."
Shareholders had pushed for the 11 defendants to use their personal wealth to reimburse the company.
In 2019 the Federal Trade Commission fined Facebook USD5 billion after it found that the social media platform failed to comply with a 2012 agreement to protect users’ data. The FTC fine was prompted by the 2018 Cambridge Analytica scandal, which found that Facebook data had been accessed by the political consulting firm that worked for Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Andreessen, a defendant in the trial and a Meta director, was scheduled to testify on Thursday. Zuckerberg was expected to testify on Monday followed by Sandberg on Wednesday next week.
