Nearly $4 billion class-action against Facebook parent Meta halted in UK

A class-action lawsuit in the U.K. seeking $3.7 billion from Facebook parent company Meta Platforms was rejected by a British tribunal on Monday, but the social media giant may not be totally out of the dark, yet.

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
META	META PLATFORMS INC.	501.80	+7.63	+1.54%

The U.K.'s Competition Appeal Tribunal denied the suit brought by Dr. Liza Lovdahl Gormsen, who accused Facebook of violating the country's laws by allegedly exploiting its dominant position and taking advantage of users by monetizing their data without compensation.

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However, the panel granted Gormsen and other would-be plaintiffs more time to regroup and try to provide evidence that Meta users allegedly incurred losses.

"The Tribunal proposes to stay the CPO Application for a period of six months to enable the (proposed class representative) to file additional evidence setting out a new and better blueprint for the effective trial of the proceedings," the tribunal wrote in its decision. 

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"Absent a new and better blueprint, the Tribunal will lift the stay and reject the CPO Application," it read. "If a new and better blueprint is produced, the Tribunal will give appropriate directions for the determination of the renewed application."

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A Meta spokesperson told Reuters the company welcomed the U.K. tribunal's decision, and re-upped an earlier statement saying the lawsuit is "entirely without merit."

Reuters contributed to this report.