SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) ― A U.S. judge on Monday approved a deal in which Facebook will pay $20 million for using members “likes” as endorsements for ads.
The pot of money is to be divvied up among attorneys, Internet privacy rights groups, and Facebook users who filed claims in the class-action lawsuit.
U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg reasoned that the sum, a small fraction of the billions being sought in the case, was fair given the challenges of proving Facebook members were financially harmed or that signaling “likes” for products didn’t imply some form of consent.
Facebook’s Sponsored Stories program used members’ names or likenesses to endorse ads without getting their permission, according to the legal filing.
Seeborg estimated the size of the class represented in the suit as 150 million people, but noted that so few had filed claims that there was ample money in the settlement fund.
“The settlement as a whole provides fair, reasonable, and adequate relief to the class, in light of all the circumstances, including the low probability that a substantially better result would be obtained through continued litigation,” the judge wrote in a ruling endorsing the deal.
