The Federal Court of Germany in Karlsruhe has ruled that Facebook users whose data was illegally accessed in 2018 and 2019 are entitled to compensation.
The court determined that losing control over personal data online, including on Facebook, is sufficient grounds for compensation, even without evidence of specific financial losses.
This ruling stems from a lawsuit filed by several thousand Facebook users in Germany who are seeking compensation from Meta, the parent company of the social network, for failing to adequately protect their data after their accounts were hacked. Approximately six million people in Germany were impacted by the data breach that occurred between 2016 and 2017.
A lower court in Cologne had previously dismissed claims for compensation of 1,000 euros. However, the Federal Court has now instructed the lower court to investigate whether Facebook’s terms of use were clear and understandable, and whether users’ consent to data usage was given voluntarily.
Meta had initially declined to offer compensation, arguing that the affected individuals had not demonstrated specific financial losses. Following the Karlsruhe court’s decision, a Meta representative commented that the ruling “does not align with recent practices of the European Court of Justice, the highest judicial body in Europe.”
