A Delaware court has opened proceedings in an $8 billion class action lawsuit against Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other top executives, with shareholders accusing them of failing to protect user privacy and misleading investors during the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
The lawsuit claims Meta (then Facebook) violated a 2012 consent order with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) by continuing to collect and share user data without consent—ultimately selling it to commercial partners and stripping key privacy disclosures. These actions allegedly exposed the company to significant legal and financial risk, which shareholders say was not properly communicated.
The scandal, tied to the political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica—which supported Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign—has already resulted in billions in penalties, including a $5.1 billion FTC fine and a $725 million settlement with users. Shareholders are now demanding that Zuckerberg and others reimburse Meta for those legal costs. Zuckerberg and former COO Sheryl Sandberg are expected to testify next week, while a final ruling is not expected for several months.
