Meta hit with class action over impersonation ads using financial professionals’ identities

Meta class action lawsuit overview:

• Who: Plaintiffs John Suddeth and Sara Perkins filed a class action lawsuit against Meta Platforms Inc. and its subsidiaries Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp.
• Why: Suddeth and Perkins claim Meta unlawfully used financial professionals’ names, images, voices and personas in paid advertisements.
• Where: The Meta class action lawsuit was filed in California federal court.

A new class action lawsuit claims Meta Platforms unlawfully used financial professionals’ names, images, voices and personas in paid advertisements.

Plaintiffs John Suddeth and Sara Perkins’ class action lawsuit claims Meta used the financial professionals’ identities in paid advertisements and related promotional content disseminated on Facebook, Instagram and/or WhatsApp.

The pair argue Meta’s conduct induced investment in fraudulent, thinly traded China-based securities and violates the Lanham Act, the California Right of Publicity, the California Unfair Competition Law, the Florida Right of Publicity and the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.

“In practice, paid ads on the Platforms are created through standardized workflows in Ads Manager: an advertiser selects an objective (e.g., traffic, conversions or click-to-WhatsApp), uploads creative assets (text, images or video), chooses audience parameters (demographics, interests, behaviors and lookalikes), sets budget and bid strategy and designates placements across feeds, Stories/Reels and other surfaces,” the Meta class action lawsuit says.

Meta failed to take action despite warning, plaintiffs claim

Suddeth and Perkins argue Meta failed to take action after being warned by a bipartisan coalition of state attorneys general that paid impersonation ads and WhatsApp investment groups were being used to perpetrate widespread fraud against U.S. consumers.

“Nevertheless, during July 2025 and thereafter, Meta continued to serve or allow materially identical impersonation ads and funnels to proliferate,” the Meta class action lawsuit claims.

Suddeth and Perkins want to represent a nationwide class of financial professionals in the United States whose names, images, voices, likenesses, credentials, branding or professional personas were used without consent in paid advertisements or related promotional content on Meta’s platforms to promote securities or investment opportunities during the period from at least Jan. 1, 2023 through the present.

The plaintiffs demand a jury trial and request declaratory and injunctive relief and an award of actual, statutory and punitive damages for themselves and all class members.

Earlier this year, a group of complainants filed a class action lawsuit against Meta, accusing the company of enabling and facilitating a stock manipulation scheme that used its social media platforms to extract millions of dollars from victims.

Have you ever purchase a financial product from a Meta ad? Let us know in the comments.

The plaintiffs are represented by John T. Jasnoch of Scott+Scott Attorneys at Law LLP and Tom Grady of GradyLaw.

The Meta class action lawsuit is Suddeth, et al. v. Meta Platforms Inc., et al., Case No. 5:25-cv-08581, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Jose Division.

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