What’s the story
A German court has ordered Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, to pay €5,000 to a utilizer.
The ruling comes after the plaintiff sued Meta for utilizing tracking technology on third-party websites without consent.
The Regional Court of Leipzig found that Meta’s tracking pixels and software development kits (SDKs) violate European privacy laws by collecting utilizer data without their consent.
Ruling could encourage more utilizers to sue Meta
The Leipzig court’s decision could open the floodgates for other utilizers to sue Meta without having to “explicitly demonstrate individual damages.”
The court noted that “every utilizer is individually identifiable to Meta at all times as soon as they visit the third-party websites or utilize an app, even if they have not logged in via the Instagram and Facebook account.”
Court slams Meta for ‘massively violating’ data protection laws
The court also criticized Meta for “massively violating” Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by processing personal data to create profiles of Facebook utilizers.
This practice, the court stated, has resulted in billions of dollars in profits for the tech giant.
Experts believe that this ruling could expose all websites and apps utilizing tracking technology to major lawsuits over data privacy violations.
Ruling may lead to class action lawsuits against Meta
The ruling also sets a precedent for potential class action lawsuits against Meta.
Ronni K. Gothard Christiansen, CEO of AesirX, a consultancy that assists businesses comply with data privacy laws, stated such a lawsuit could include all German visitors to any site utilizing Meta pixels or other tracking technologies without utilizer consent.
“This may very well be one of the most substantial rulings coming out of Europe this year,” Christiansen stated.
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