US Supreme Court rebuffs Meta bid to escape advertisers’ lawsuit

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Meta’s appeal to dismiss a multi-billion-dollar class action lawsuit. The case, brought by advertisers, accuses Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, of overcharging by inflating the number of people their ads might reach.

The justices rejected Meta's appeal of a lower court ruling that allowed advertisers to pursue damages collectively. According to media reports, the judges said that because “Meta provided the same alleged misrepresentation about how many people might see ads, the advertisers could try to prove that their damages, which they said could exceed $7 billion, stemmed from a common course of conduct.

The complainants claimed they paid for ads on Facebook and Instagram since August 15, 2014.

Led by former Meta advertisers DZ Reserve and Cain Maxwell, the plaintiffs faulted Meta for focusing on the number of social media accounts, not the lower number of actual people, and said it fraudulently overestimated potential viewers by as much as 400%.

In its appeal, Meta said at least three federal appeals courts have rejected the “common course of conduct” test.

The company said the test ignored how some advertisers may have found its alleged misrepresentation immaterial, or chose not to rely on it.