Zuckerberg, Meta Executives Reach Settlement in $8 Billion Facebook Privacy Lawsuit
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other top executives have reached a settlement with shareholders over a high-profile lawsuit linked to Facebook’s repeated privacy breaches, including the infamous Cambridge Analytica scandal.
The lawsuit, which sought over $8 billion in damages, was settled on Thursday just before the trial was set to resume in a Delaware court. Specific terms of the agreement were not disclosed, and Meta has declined to comment on the resolution.
The case, filed in 2018, accused Zuckerberg and other board members of failing to prevent or properly respond to data privacy violations that ultimately cost the company billions in legal fees and fines. Shareholders argued that company leaders enabled Facebook’s misconduct, which allowed political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica to harvest data from millions of users without consent ahead of the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Among the 11 defendants named in the suit were several high-profile figures, including former COO Sheryl Sandberg, Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel, Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, and Jeffrey Zients, now White House chief of staff under President Biden. Zients testified earlier in the week, stating that while Meta’s $5 billion settlement with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission in 2019 was substantial, it was not meant to shield Zuckerberg from legal accountability.
The settlement spares Meta’s leadership from further courtroom testimony and avoids a potentially damaging public trial. Legal experts say that while the agreement brings the shareholder case to a close, it also prevents deeper public insight into how Facebook’s internal decisions may have led to systemic privacy failures.
“This trial had the potential to reveal the inner workings of Meta’s decision-making around user data,” said Ann Lipton, a corporate law professor at the University of Colorado. “Now, that transparency is lost.”
While Meta was not directly named as a defendant in the case, the company has faced intense scrutiny and regulatory action over its handling of user data. Since the Cambridge Analytica fallout, Meta says it has committed billions toward improving its privacy protections across its platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
The trial was being overseen by Delaware judge Kathaleen McCormick, who gained national attention last year for her role in rejecting Elon Musk’s controversial $56 billion pay package at Tesla. Following that ruling, Tesla moved its incorporation from Delaware to Texas.
With the Meta case now settled, attention may shift to how the company continues to manage user privacy – and whether further reforms can restore trust in the wake of one of the largest data scandals in tech history.
