The Supreme Court dealt a setback Friday to Facebook’s owner Meta Platforms by dismissing their appeal of a securities fraud lawsuit accusing the tech giant of misleading investors during the data-harvesting scandal involving Cambridge Analytica.
In a one-sentence unsigned opinion, the Supreme Court did not provide a reason for dismissing Facebook, Inc. v. Amalgamated Bank, just saying it was “improvidently granted.” It now means the lawsuit can continue in lower courts.
Plaintiffs in the case argue that Facebook violated the Securities Exchange Act and unlawfully withheld information from investors surrounding the 2015 data breach tied to Cambridge Analytica, a British political consulting firm, according to Reuters.
In 2018, Facebook’s stock plummeted when media reports exposed that the firm used improperly harvested data from Facebook to support Donald Trump’s successful 2016 presidential bid, the website added, noting that the investors are now seeking monetary damages to help recoup the lost value of the stock they had held.