Facebook Class Action Lawsuit In Canada Reached A Settlement & Here's Who Could Get Money

There's a new development in the years-long class action lawsuit in Canada against Facebook — a settlement has been reached!

Only residents of certain provinces will be able to get money from the multi-million dollar class action though.

On January 11, 2024, it was announced by the professional services firm MNP and law firm Branch MacMaster that a settlement had been reached in this Canadian Facebook class action lawsuit.

Meta, which owns and operates Facebook, has agreed to pay $51,000,000 to select Canadians if the settlement is approved in court.

The class action from 2018 alleged that Facebook used names and photos of users in Sponsored Stories advertisements without their consent which violates privacy acts.

Class members are residents of B.C., Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Newfoundland and Labrador, who were members of Facebook at any time from January 1, 2011, to May 30, 2014.

Also, they were registered with Facebook using their real name and/or had a profile picture that included an identifiable self-image, and had their real name and/or identifiable photo used by Facebook in a Sponsored Story.

If you weren't a resident of one of those provinces during that time, you're not considered a class member and aren't able to get money.

Lawyers working on the class action expect that 4.3 million people could qualify to receive money from the Canadian settlement, according to Global News.

The Facebook class action settlement still needs to be approved by the court and a hearing has been scheduled for March 13, 2024.

If the settlement is approved, more information will be put out about how to submit a claim to get money and what the deadline is to file a claim form.

Meta has denied the allegations and the settlement of this Facebook class action lawsuit in Canada is not an admission of liability.

In 2023, Meta also settled a class action lawsuit in the U.S. that alleged the company shared Facebook user data with or made it available to third parties without the permission of those users.

Even though it provided a settlement of US$725 million, the company denied claims from that class action lawsuit.

This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.