A settlement was announced Thursday in a class-action lawsuit filed by investors against Meta (META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg and current and former company leaders. The suit stemmed from the privacy scandal involving the Cambridge Analytica political consulting firm.
The lawsuit sought billions of dollars in reimbursement for fines and legal expenses. No details of the settlement were disclosed during the announcement in Delaware’s Court of Chancery at the start of what would have been the trial’s second day. At that time, no settlement documents had been filed with the court.
Attorneys involved declined to comment, and a Meta spokesperson said the company had no comment.
Investors alleged that Meta failed to fully disclose to Facebook users the risks that their personal data would be misused by Cambridge Analytica, which supported Donald Trump’s 2016 Republican presidential campaign. Shareholders claimed Facebook repeatedly violated a 2012 Federal Trade Commission consent order that prohibited collecting and sharing personal data without users’ consent.
The lawsuit stated Facebook later sold user data to commercial partners in violation of the consent order and removed privacy disclosures required under the order.
Facebook agreed to a $5.1 billion penalty to settle FTC charges. The company also faced fines in Europe and reached a $725 million privacy settlement with users.
Shareholders sought reimbursement from Zuckerberg and others for roughly $8 billion or more covering the FTC fine and legal costs.
Zuckerberg and former COO Sheryl Sandberg were expected to testify. Other defendants included current and former board members such as billionaires Marc Andreessen and Peter Thiel.
Earlier this year, Sandberg was sanctioned for deleting emails from her personal account related to the Cambridge Analytica investigation. Jeffrey Zients, an outside director from 2018 to 2020, avoided sanctions, as his role made it less likely he had access to relevant information.
During testimony on the lawsuit’s first day, Zients said he supported the FTC settlement shareholders were seeking reimbursement for.
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