First European class-action lawsuit against Meta over Facebook data breach launched in South Tyrol

In Italy, approximately 35 million users were affected by a data breach that is believed to have occurred at Facebook between 2018 and 2019. The data that was leaked was later offered for sale on the dark web and was apparently used for spam, phishing, identity theft, and other forms of fraud, among other things. However, the incident only became public knowledge in 2021. Now, the first European class-action lawsuit against the parent company Meta is being launched from Bolzano, and it has already been deemed legally admissible. This was decided by the competent court in Milan on April 10.

The lawsuit was initiated by the Center for Consumer Protection (Ctcu) in South Tyrol. Its director, Gunde Bauhofer, emphasizes that the lawsuit is based on a principle of EU case law: data breaches of this kind are generally subject to liability for damages. Attorney Rodolfo Dolce, who is leading the proceedings together with Carlo Malossi for Dolce Lauda, explains that affected individuals can already register in a registry. This register is being maintained as part of the court proceedings and will be used to determine individual compensation amounts later on. The next major milestone is scheduled for October: that is when the court will hear arguments regarding the amount of potential compensation. Amounts of several hundred euros per person are being discussed. Extrapolated to the estimated number of affected individuals, this could be one of the largest class-action lawsuits in the world.

https://suedtirol.orf.at/stories/3350982/

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