Facebook Advertising Class Action Lawsuit Challenges Ad Click Rates

Facebook advertising practices have come into question in a new class action lawsuit alleging that the social media company allows fake accounts and invalid clicks to exist so that they can charge advertisers more for ads.

Plaintiff William Doshier filed the Facebook class action lawsuit in Arkansas state court in July. The case was removed to federal court on Sept. 4.

The Facebook class action lawsuit challenges Facebook’s advertising practices, stating that the social media giant wrongfully charges for invalid clicks on advertisements.

Doshier, seeking to increase exposure for his business, says he built a business page on Facebook for dotStrategy. He created advertisements by “boosting” posts on his business page.

These self-serve ads are often paid per click. However, Doshier claims that he was wrongfully charged for invalid clicks from fake accounts. He then reached out to Facebook to have his ad billing reviewed, but the Facebook advertising team allegedly did not follow through.

According to the Facebook ads class action lawsuit, the company knows it has a problem with fake accounts. Doshier references a June 2018 Wall Street Journal article which states that Facebook has implemented new tools in an attempt to “make it easier to identify fake pages.”

Facebook’s COO Sheryl Sandberg reportedly made a statement, saying: “By far the most important action we are taking is going after fake accounts […] Transparency helps us find and fix problems.”

Fake accounts can allegedly cause serious financial burden to advertisers, as seen in Doshier’s situation. Facebook claims that it prevents invalid clicks in order to make sure that advertisers are not charged for them. However, Facebook’s self-serve ad terms state that the social media site cannot control how clicks are generated and is not responsible for “click fraud, technological issues, or other potentially invalid click activity that may affect the cost of running ads.”

The Facebook ad clicks class action lawsuit claims that the Facebook advertising team tells advertisers it will prevent fraudulent clicks when, in reality, they allow invalid clicks to occur to boost their own revenue. Invalid clicks allegedly allow Facebook advertising to charge businesses large amounts in advertisement fees, which the social media giant takes advantage of.

“Unfortunately, FACEBOOK’s new tools roll out ‘to make it easier to identify fake pages’ is simply subterfuge on the part of FACEBOOK, which will allow it to continue to generate substantial and fraudulent ad revenue through invalid ‘clicks generated through … fake accounts,’” the Facebook advertising class action lawsuit claims.

To support his allegations, Doshier references Facebook’s available tools which could help eliminate fake accounts and invalid clicks. Facebook reportedly has the software coding capability to implement artificial intelligence which could detect and filter fake accounts. Because fake accounts and invalid clicks still exist and cause trouble for advertisers, Doshier claims that Facebook must not be implementing its available technology to protect its consumers.

Doshier seeks to represent a Class of consumers who used self-serve Facebook advertising to promote their page and were then charged for invalid clicks.

The Facebook advertising class action seeks actual damages, compensatory damages, consequential damages, statutory damages, treble damages, punitive damages, restitution, disgorgement, court costs, and attorneys’ fees.

The plaintiff is represented by David A. Hodges.

The Facebook Advertising Invalid Clicks Class Action Lawsuit is Doshier, et al. v. Facebook Inc., Case No. 4:18-cv-00628-KGB, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas.