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Meta Settles Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit with Shareholders Over Cambridge Analytica Fallout

By  |  July 17, 2025

Meta Platforms Inc. has reached a settlement with a group of investors to resolve a high-profile lawsuit stemming from the company’s handling of the Cambridge Analytica scandal and its record-setting 2019 settlement with U.S. regulators, according to Bloomberg.

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    The agreement, which was finalized just one day into what was expected to be an eight-day trial in Delaware Chancery Court, brings an end to a years-long legal battle over how Meta’s leadership — including CEO Mark Zuckerberg — managed the aftermath of a major data privacy controversy. Details of the settlement have not been publicly disclosed. A spokesperson for Meta declined to comment, per Bloomberg.

    At the heart of the litigation was the $5 billion fine Meta paid to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 2019, the largest penalty in the agency’s history at the time. Investors alleged that Meta’s leadership agreed to an outsized settlement in an effort to shield Zuckerberg from personal liability related to the Cambridge Analytica data misuse scandal. That scandal involved the unauthorized harvesting of data from millions of Facebook users by a third-party developer, which was then passed on to political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, a company linked to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

    Related: Meta Facing New EU Fines Over Consent-or-Pay Model, According to Report

    According to Bloomberg, shareholders contended that company directors ignored warning signs about data misuse and prioritized Zuckerberg’s protection over the company’s financial interests. The plaintiffs were seeking more than $7 billion in damages to be returned to Meta, arguing that the settlement unfairly burdened the company’s bottom line while absolving individual executives of responsibility.

    Testimony began Wednesday with Jeffrey Zients, a former Meta board member who later served as White House Chief of Staff under President Joe Biden. Zients told the court that the board directed its legal team to propose a multibillion-dollar settlement with the FTC, with the key condition that Zuckerberg not be personally implicated. He emphasized that the board saw Zuckerberg as vital to Meta’s continued success and did not believe he was directly involved in the data privacy violations.

    Other key figures expected to testify during the trial included Zuckerberg himself, former COO Sheryl Sandberg, and venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Peter Thiel. Andreessen, who remains on Meta’s board, was scheduled to appear on the witness stand Thursday, according to Bloomberg.

    Source: Bloomberg