Facebook violated the law, Dutch court rules

Amsterdam — A Dutch court hearing a class-action lawsuit on Wednesday found that the European subsidiary of Meta, Facebook Ireland, improperly used personal data of Dutch citizens between 2010 and 2020, saying the company had “violated the law”.

“Personal information was processed for the purposes of advertising when in this case that is not allowed,” a summary of the court ruling said.

“Personal information was given to third parties without Facebook users being informed and without there being a legal basis to do so.”

The decision was directed at Facebook Ireland because it is the part of the company that oversees the processing of Dutch user data.

A spokesperson for Meta said the company was “pleased” with parts of the decision and would appeal others, noting that some of the claims date back more than a decade.

“We know that privacy is important to our Dutch users and we want them to have control over how their data is used, the person said.

The plaintiff, Data Privacy Stichting, was launched in 2020 as a partnership between a group of law firms and the Dutch Consumers’ Association to try to seek damages.

The Dutch case has not yet progressed to the phase where any damages could be claimed. The Data Privacy Group could not immediately be reached for comment.

Reuters