Ad rates: Facebook advertisers can pursue class action

Ad rates came in front of a U.S. judge, who ruled that Facebook advertisers can sue the company in common actions. Thus, both individuals and businesses can act as a group.

Facebook advertisers said they had been deceived

According to the judge, those who paid for ads since Aug. 15, 2014 can take common action. This applies to both Facebook and Instagram. There was no immediate reaction from Meta about the decision.

The lawsuit started in 2018, when advertisers accused the company that it manipulated the advertising prices. They said that Facebook artificially inflated the number of potential viewers by 400%. Thus, it charged high premiums for ad placements.

Moreover, they mentioned that the senior executives of the company knew about this for a long time. Employees did this using duplicate and and fake accounts. So, the judge rejected Meta’s objections.

$32 would prevent people from sueing individually

Also, he explained that he allowed individuals sue as a group because “no reasonable person” would do it individually. And this is because most of the individiuals would have to recover at most $32 each.

Now, the same judge should consider later this year Meta’s bid to dismiss the lawsuit.

As we can see, Meta is bothering both its users and the advertisers on its platforms, at the same time. Thus, users are annoyed by intrusive ads which collect their data and track them all over the web. At the same time, advertisers discovered that they have to pay for a reach they could never control or verify.

This could generate a tsunami for the social media platform, as the trust of advertisers might colapse.

Still, users have a tool to protect themselves from this kind of ads. Ad Guardian Plus, one of the best Windows native ad blockers is here for you. Download it for free!