Facebook and its outside law firm were fined nearly $1 million for falsely denying that it shared users’ private information with third parties without their permission.
According to US District Judge Vince Chhabria, the fine is “loose change” for Facebook and Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP. However, the San Francisco judge expressed hope that it will persuade the company and its lawyers to “behave more honorably moving forward.”
The $925,078.51 fine is the result of a lawsuit in which Meta Platforms Inc. agreed to pay a record-breaking $725 million to settle a 2018 lawsuit alleging that Facebook illegally shared user data with the research firm Cambridge Analytica. Chhabria claims that Facebook used “delay, misdirection, and frivolous arguments” to make the litigation unnecessarily difficult and expensive. Much of the behavior cited by Chhabria involved withholding information that it was clearly required to turn over under the rules of litigation.
“Perhaps realizing they had no real reason to withhold these documents, Facebook and Gibson Dunn contorted various statements” of opposing lawyers and the court “beyond recognition,” Chhabria wrote. “And, despite being told repeatedly that these arguments were illogical, Facebook and Gibson Dunn persisted in pressing them.”