Facebook and its outside law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher have reportedly been ordered to pay almost $1 million in sanctions for deceitfully denying that it shared users’ private information with third parties without permission. According to a report in Bloomberg, US District Judge Vince Chhabria termed the fine as “loose change” for Facebook and Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP in the order.
A long-time Facebook critic, Chhabria, who has long been critical of Gibson Dunn’s handling of the case, said that the company and Facebook mounted a “sustained, concerted, bad-faith effort to throw obstacle after obstacle in front of the plaintiffs-all in an attempt to push the plaintiffs into settling the case for less than they would have gotten otherwise.”
According to the report, the judge said that he hopes it will induce the company and its lawyers “to behave more honorably moving forward.”Judge slams Facebook for “delay, misdirection, and frivolous arguments”
The $925,078.51 penalty is based on the lawsuit in which Meta Platforms Inc agreed to pay $725 million to settle a 2018 lawsuit that claimed Facebook illegally shared user data with the research firm Cambridge Analytica. According to Chhabria, Facebook relied on “delay, misdirection, and frivolous arguments” to make the litigation unfairly difficult and expensive. Much of the behavior Chhabria pointed to involved withholding information that under the rules of litigation it clearly had to turn over. “Perhaps realizing they had no real argument for withholding these documents, Facebook and Gibson Dunn contorted various statements” of opposing lawyers and the court “beyond recognition,” Chhabria wrote. “And again, after being told repeatedly that these arguments made no sense, Facebook and Gibson Dunn insisted on pressing them.”
Cambridge Analytica scandal
Meta, Facebook’s parent company, faced a series of lawsuits over revelations in 2018 that the company allowed British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica to access data of as many as 87 million users. The company per se did not admit wrongdoing. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg too testified in the case.
A long-time Facebook critic, Chhabria, who has long been critical of Gibson Dunn’s handling of the case, said that the company and Facebook mounted a “sustained, concerted, bad-faith effort to throw obstacle after obstacle in front of the plaintiffs-all in an attempt to push the plaintiffs into settling the case for less than they would have gotten otherwise.”
According to the report, the judge said that he hopes it will induce the company and its lawyers “to behave more honorably moving forward.”Judge slams Facebook for “delay, misdirection, and frivolous arguments”
The $925,078.51 penalty is based on the lawsuit in which Meta Platforms Inc agreed to pay $725 million to settle a 2018 lawsuit that claimed Facebook illegally shared user data with the research firm Cambridge Analytica. According to Chhabria, Facebook relied on “delay, misdirection, and frivolous arguments” to make the litigation unfairly difficult and expensive. Much of the behavior Chhabria pointed to involved withholding information that under the rules of litigation it clearly had to turn over. “Perhaps realizing they had no real argument for withholding these documents, Facebook and Gibson Dunn contorted various statements” of opposing lawyers and the court “beyond recognition,” Chhabria wrote. “And again, after being told repeatedly that these arguments made no sense, Facebook and Gibson Dunn insisted on pressing them.”
Cambridge Analytica scandal
Meta, Facebook’s parent company, faced a series of lawsuits over revelations in 2018 that the company allowed British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica to access data of as many as 87 million users. The company per se did not admit wrongdoing. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg too testified in the case.
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