Facebook (META) $100 Million SEC Fair Fund

It is still possible to file a late claim. The court will decide whether to accept late claims or not.

N.D. California

Court

3:19-cv-04241

Case number

28 Jan 2016

Class period Start

19 Mar 2018

Class period End

30 Nov 2022

Claim deadline

Facebook(META) settled $100 million with shareholders via SEC arranged Fair Fund.

According to the SEC’s complaint, in 2014 and 2015, the now-defunct advertising and data analytics company, Cambridge Analytica, paid an academic researcher, through a company he controlled, to collect and transfer data from Facebook to create personality scores for approximately 30 million Americans. 

In addition to the personality scores, the researcher, in violation of Facebook’s policies, also transferred to Cambridge Analytica the underlying Facebook user data, including names, genders, locations, birthdays, and “page likes.”  Cambridge Analytica used this information in connection with its political advertising activities. 

The complaint alleged that during this two-year period, Facebook had no specific policies or procedures in place to assess the results of their investigation for the purposes of making accurate disclosures in Facebook’s public filings.

The complaint further alleged that Facebook discovered the misuse of its users’ information in 2015, but did not correct its existing disclosure for more than two years.  Instead, Facebook continued to tell investors that “our users’ data may be improperly accessed, used or disclosed.” According to the SEC, Facebook reinforced this false impression when it told news reporters who were investigating Cambridge Analytica’s use of Facebook user data that it had discovered no evidence of wrongdoing.  

When the company finally disclosed the incident in March 2018, its stock price dropped.

Case Status

Accepting Late Claims

Alleged Offence

Misleading Statements,

Failure to Disclose,

Omissions

Suspected Party

Directors,

Management

Security Type

Stocks

Trade Direction

Long

Payout per Share

2.29

Plaintiffs

SEC

Judge

Hon. James Donato

Administrator

RCB Fund Services

Court hearing date

22 August 2022

Trades matching type

FIFO

+$100,000,000

Cash Settlement Amount