Facebook Inc may have paid US$4.9 billion more than the maximum penalty it faced under a settlement agreement with regulators related to allegations it mishandled user privacy, according to a Wednesday court ruling.
FILE PHOTO: Facebook logo displayed on a mobile phone is seen through a magnifying glass in this picture illustration taken February 9, 2021. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso/File photoREUTERS: Facebook Inc may have paid US$4.9 billion more than the maximum penalty it faced under a settlement agreement with regulators related to allegations it mishandled user privacy, according to a Wednesday court ruling.
The information made public by a Delaware judge who gleaned it from a"white paper" prepared by a law firm advising Facebook's board of directors as they debated a proposed US$5 billion settlement with the Federal Trade Commission. That agreement also protected Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg.
"The documents already produced provide no insight into why Facebook would pay more than its maximum exposure to settle a claim," said Slights in the ruling. Shareholders, he said, were"right to question whether internal communications among Facebook fiduciaries might shed light on the Board’s thinking in this regard."The July 2019 deal resolved allegations Facebook mishandled user privacy. The company did not admit wrongdoing.
Slights refused to order the company to turn over documents that Facebook said were protected by attorney-client privilege, in part because the judge said shareholders could gain insights from non-privileged electronic communications he was ordering to be disclosed.