Facebook to pay £12,500 in damages to users? Don’t hold your breath

Tabloid media outlets often jump on erroneous headlines that provide good clickbait. And the headline that Facebook users can be entitled to £12,500 ($17,500) in damages from Facebook after the Cambridge Analytica data scandal is as clickbaity as it gets.

The rumours that Facebook users could be getting up to £12,500 each in damages originated from UK tabloid outfit The Sun, who interviewed legal expert Dr. Maureen Mapp who in the article claimed that Facebook could be forced to pay out £625 billion to their users. But it seems The Sun may have subsequently determined those figures to be a tad misleading since it soon unpublished the article from both The Sun and The Scottish Sun websites.

But not before it went viral with a number of other media outlets and clickbait websites parroting the same claims made in the article. Despite many websites now carrying similar headlines, they all use the figures given by Maureen Mapp in the article for The Sun.

However, if you’re expecting to get a £12,500 ($17,500) pay-out from Facebook, well, we wouldn’t recommend holding your breath.

In the aftermath of the Cambridge Analytica data scandal, Facebook is going to have to deal with a number of lawsuits from various individuals and entities. Many have already filed suit, including many of the social network’s shareholders who saw their stocks plummet as both Facebook’s reputation and stock value took a serious hit.

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For the everyday Facebook user, if any damages are to be received, they are most likely going to be acquired through a class action lawsuit, where dozens, hundreds, thousands or even millions of people who suffered similar or identical harm can join the same suit. However class action lawsuits are complex, especially of this size (anywhere between 50-87 million potential plaintiffs depending on which media reports you read.) If you’re wondering if a class action lawsuit has already been filed, then wonder no more, because one has. Lauren Price from Maryland filed a proposed class action suit in a Californian district court on behalf of affected Facebook users at the end of March (Price v Facebook Inc et al, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 18-01732). If determined to be a class action suit by a judge, other Facebook members can potentially join it.

Such class action suits, due to the number of people who could potentially qualify, are usually opt-in, meaning you need to register to join. Something similar happened in 2011 when the Fraley vs Facebook class action lawsuit was filed over the misuse of Facebook’s “sponsored stories” feature. However if you’re thinking of a pay-out of thousands, then know that the Fraley vs. Facebook class action suit resulted in a comparatively meagre $15 settlement per class member.

The Price v Facebook class action lawsuit is very much in its early days, and only time will tell whether anything will actually come out of it or what other legal action will/could be taken against the social network in the future. In the meantime, we don’t recommend planning your Facebook-funded vacation just yet.