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A class action lawsuit alleging that Facebook violates antitrust laws by harvesting user data and monopolizing the online ad market was filed a decade too late and is really a privacy case masquerading as antitrust, the company argued at a California hearing.
On Thursday, the social media giant called on a U.S. District Judge Lucy H. Koh to reject the Facebook antitrust class action lawsuit saying there was no such thing as a social media market and that the claims being made are time-barred, Law360 reports.
According to the Facebook lawsuit, filed in December, Facebook misrepresented its data privacy practices to get more users and has monopolized the social media market through acquisitions leaving users with little choice in platforms.
The consumers allege that Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp and Instagram have hindered competition and monopolized the online ad market, giving Facebook increased access to user data.
Advertisers in the Facebook antitrust class action lawsuit allege that they had to pay supracompetitive prices for advertisements on Facebook due its antitrust practices, Law360 reports.
Stephen A. Swedlow of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP, an attorney for the consumer plaintiffs, argued that the Facebook class action lawsuit was an antitrust case as Facebook allegedly dominated the social media market by using stolen user data to beat out any competition.
Swedlow added that user data now comes with a price tag to advertisers and by not paying for it, Facebook both harmed users through deception and damaged competition.
However, Sonal N. Mehta of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr LLP, an attorney for Facebook, told Koh there was no such thing as a social media market or social advertising submarket for Facebook to monopolize as the plaintiffs claim, Law360 reports. She added that the class action lawsuit’s claims of user deception were based on events that happened more than a decade ago and are now time-barred.
Mehta cited an earlier case against Google where a federal court judge found that Google and Facebook couldn’t be separated into separate advertising markets. She added that the suit seemed to be a privacy case masquerading as an antitrust matter, noting that the core theory centers on Facebook allegedly misusing its users’ data, Law360 reports.
Swedlow, however, argued that the claims were not time-barred, saying that Facebook continued its deceptive behavior after December 2016, within the four year statute of limitations. He added that the case was fundamentally an antitrust suit even though the deception claims relate to privacy issues.
Koh took the matter under submission.
Do you think Facebook’s user data policies have antitrust claims? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section!
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28 thoughts onFacebook Calls on Federal Court to Toss Out Antitrust Class Action Lawsuit
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However on the monopolizing issue I’d like to State this we learn how to monopolize by the game Monopoly. If he thought these things up Facebook Instagram messenger what can you say he can’t just think it up and let someone else have it or give it to someone else just to save his ass from not monopolizing because no one else thought about it I do have a problem with listen to everyone else’s comments in regards to basically he’s not fact checking that and as well as taking away my freedom of speech on his platform I don’t like that and yes I would love to sue him behind not letting me have my freedom of speech if the man is thinking well okay since I did Facebook let me do another one call it Instagram see how many people use that okay let me use Messengers how many people use that if that man’s thinking and he’s that smart to think of things like that that’s cool I don’t have a problem with it but he cannot stand there and not fact check I’m a writer I did journalism in high school I’ve been writing forever and with that you must tell the truth it’s not okay to lie because I figure Mark Zuckerberg would not want to walk into a meeting and have one set of information and everybody else has something else and his is all wrong in his own committee meeting I don’t think I don’t think I like that as well as if his wife were to be impregnated by somebody else and they put she put the baby off on him and he’s taking care of his kid for the rest of his life sold and the aspect of telling the truth just these simple things make it so very important that the truth and fact checking should be common courtesy amongst the users of this global conglomerate
I ordered a medium size pellet of electric from what was advertised as 9.99 and I have screen shots from my purchase and emails and also from where I purchased it on my turbotax card through paypal. I have documented proof that this is really happening and I’m tired of getting scammed and taken advantage of and I would like to please be added.
I ordered a ring from an add on Facebook and still do not have the ring. Please add me.
I have been scammed twice on Facebook please add me to the class action
I was definitely scammed by facebook and my account was hacked so please add me or contact me about this lawsuit
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Scammed by fbook!!!!!