Austrian starts European class action lawsuit against Facebook

An Austrian law student and privacy advocate has filed a lawsuit against Facebook for privacy violations. This is a so-called class action lawsuit in which Europeans can join and compensation will be demanded.

The Austrian, law student Max Schrems, has set out the details of the lawsuit he has filed on a special website. According to Schrems, he has filed suit against Facebook’s European headquarters, which is located in Ireland. The company has been charged with privacy violations, referring specifically to participating in the NSA’s Prism wiretap, Graph Search, and tracking via like and share buttons on other websites.

With the indictment, Schrems hopes to enforce compensation. It is possible for Europeans to join the lawsuit: it is a so-called class action lawsuit that will be conducted in Austria. Schrems hopes to enforce compensation of 500 euros per person with the lawsuit. According to the prosecutor, a low amount was deliberately chosen, because the lawsuit is mainly intended to ‘enforce fundamental rights’.

Facebook has been sued several times for privacy violations. For example, it paid a settlement in the case against the so-called ‘friend advertisements’, in which, among other things, likes were used to experience advertisements. Despite this, the company behind the social networking site recently announced that it will use more personal data from its users for advertisements.