German Court Rules Facebook Users Can Claim Money Over Data Breach

KARLSRUHE (Germany), Nov 19 (Bernama-dpa) -- A German court ruled on Monday that Facebook users affected by extensive data theft at the platform a few years ago should face only minimal hurdles for obtaining financial compensation, reported German news agency (dpa).

Germany's Federal Court of Justice ruled claimants would only have to prove that they were victims of the incident, and do not need to prove that their data was later misused.

The court said victims also do not need to provide evidence that they are now affected by the data thefts in a particular way - for example in terms of fear and anxiety.

The claims relate to an April 2021 incident at Facebook, when unidentified perpetrators published data from around 533 million users from 106 different countries online.

The perpetrators had apparently managed to access the data by exploiting a friend search function on the social network. 

The incident prompted a wave of lawsuits by Facebook users in Germany, most of which have so far been unsuccessful in regional and higher regional courts.

Monday's decision from the Federal Court of Justice, the country's highest appeals court for civil and criminal matters, is expected to apply to thousands of cases currently pending in the German judicial system.

However, the presiding judge, Stephan Seiters, made it clear that the damages could not be too high in cases where Facebook merely failed to properly control the data.

Seiters cited €100 (US$106) as an example in the specific incident the court considered in the case if the claimant could not prove any financial losses.

Facebook parent company Meta has consistently argued that the lawsuits were unfounded and without merit. 

-- BERNAMA-dpa