Meta is offering $51 million to settle a class-action lawsuit in four Canadian provinces over the use of some users’ images in Facebook advertising.

The legal action filed by a B.C. woman claimed her image and those of others were used without their knowledge in Facebook’s “sponsored stories” advertising program, which is no longer in operation.

MNP Ltd., the court-appointed administrator handling the proposed settlement, says in a statement the agreement needs to be approved by a B.C. Supreme Court judge in March, along with a process to determine class members’ share of the money.

The lawsuit was expanded outside of B.C. in 2019 to include residents of Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Newfoundland and Labrador.

  • girlfreddyOP
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    6 months ago

    If there’s 4.3 million claimants and the payout is $51 million = each person will receive $11.86 … minus lawyers fees (33.3%) and taxes.

    Meta is paying out the big bucks for stealing. 🙄

    • Showroom7561
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      6 months ago

      It’s always worth it for large corporations to break the law. Their profit always seems to exceed whatever penalty they face as a result of their actions.

        • Showroom7561
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          6 months ago

          That’s basically how these corporations work. Even a billion dollar fine for Facebook wouldn’t change a thing.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    6 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    Meta is offering $51 million to settle a class-action lawsuit in four Canadian provinces over the use of some users’ images in Facebook advertising.

    woman claimed her image and those of others were used without their knowledge in Facebook’s “sponsored stories” advertising program, which is no longer in operation.

    MNP Ltd., the court-appointed administrator handling the proposed settlement, says in a statement the agreement needs to be approved by a B.C.

    Supreme Court judge in March, along with a process to determine class members’ share of the money.

    Sponsored stories ran from January 2011 to May 2014, and if someone liked a product under the program, Facebook generated a news feed endorsement using their name and profile photo, but didn’t tell them their image was being used.

    Lawyers estimate 4.3 million people who had their real name or photo used in a sponsored story could qualify as part of the Canadian settlement.


    The original article contains 190 words, the summary contains 152 words. Saved 20%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • ILikeBoobies
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    6 months ago

    Can’t really fault Facebook here, if you upload something to their servers then it’s theirs