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Germany's Federal Court of Justice (BGH) has ruled that Facebook users whose data was illegally accessed in 2018 and 2019 are eligible for compensation. The court determined that losing control over personal data online constitutes grounds for damages, even in the absence of specific financial losses. This ruling could pave the way for thousands of affected users in Germany to seek compensation from Meta, Facebook's parent company.
The case stems from a 2021 data breach in which information gathered through Facebook's "friend search" feature was exploited. Unknown third parties accessed user accounts by guessing phone numbers. Approximately six million Facebook users in Germany were impacted by the breach according to a Reuters report.
The claims were initially dismissed by a lower court in Cologne, a city in Germany, but the BGH has now ordered a re-examination of the case. One plaintiff had sought 1,000 euro in damages, but the BGH suggested that a sum of around 100 euro would be appropriate in instances where no financial harm is proven. The court also instructed the lower court to assess whether Facebook's terms of use were clear and whether users had voluntarily consented to the processing of their data.
Previously, Meta refused to pay compensation on the grounds that those affected had not been able to prove any concrete damages. According to Reuters, a Meta spokesperson said the BGH's ruling was "inconsistent with the recent case law of the European Court of Justice, the highest court in Europe." He said, "Facebook's systems were not hacked in this incident and there was no data breach.
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