Class action against Facebook can be filed in BC, Supreme Court says
Posted June 23, 2017 7:01 am.
Last Updated June 23, 2017 11:03 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
OTTAWA – The Supreme Court of Canada says a woman who wants to sue Facebook over its use of “sponsored stories” can pursue her case in BC.
Deborah Douez, from Vancouver, wants to file a class-action lawsuit against the social media giant over a now-defunct advertising format, which allegedly used her name and profile photo in ads endorsing a company for which she had clicked the “Like” button.
The ads were generated for companies that purchased the sponsored stories format and were sometimes displayed on the newsfeeds of her friends.
A lower court approved her suit, but the British Columbia Court of Appeal stayed the case, saying it should properly be pursued in California, where Facebook is based.
NEWS 1130 Legal Analyst Michael Shapray tells us what could happen next.
“Now the case is going to proceed. There are all kinds of procedural steps to get a class action (suit) certified in British Columbia, and I believe I’ve read that the class could be as large as 1.8 million.”
An appeal court had said all potential users of Facebook must agree to its terms of use, which include a forum selection and choice-of-law clause requiring that disputes be resolved in California according to California law
But, in today’s decision, the Supreme Court calls the clause unenforceable.
