WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court is allowing a multibillion-dollar investor class action against Meta, Facebook’s parent company, stemming from the privacy scandal involving political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica.
The justices heard arguments in November in Meta’s attempt to end the trial. On Friday, they decided they were wrong to take up the matter.
The High Court rejected the company’s appeal, leaving in place an appeal ruling allowing the case to continue.
Investors say Meta failed to fully disclose risks that Facebook users’ personal information could be misused by Cambridge Analytica, a company that supported Donald Trump’s successful first Republican presidential campaign in 2016.
Insufficient disclosure led to two significant declines in the company’s stock price in 2018, after the public became aware of the scale of the privacy scandal, investors say.
Meta has already paid a $5.1 billion fine and reached a $725 million confidentiality agreement with users.
Cambridge Analytica had ties to Trump political strategist Steve Bannon. He had paid a Facebook app developer to access the personal information of approximately 87 million Facebook users. This data was then used to target American voters during the 2016 campaign.
The lawsuit is one of two trials before the High Court involving class action lawsuits against technology companies. The judges are also considering whether to drop a class-action lawsuit against Nvidia. Investors claim the company misled them about its reliance on selling computer chips for volatile cryptocurrency mining.
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