Australian mining magnate Andrew Forrest has won a significant victory in his ongoing court case against Facebook operator Meta, with a US judge declaring the company’s inability to preserve and produce vital evidence an act of “gross negligence”.
Forrest is suing Meta over its alleged role in the creation and proliferation of financial advertisement scams featuring his likeness, which were shared with millions of Australians.
At issue is Meta’s admission that it needed several years to produce data related to how its tools were used to create the scam ads. In addition, Meta only recently began the task of preserving evidence, despite a legal duty to do so coming into effect in 2019, when Forrest’s lawyers put the company on notice.
“The weight of the evidence thus supports a finding that Meta had, and could have preserved, final-rendering data for the scam ads but chose not to do so,” Judge P Casey Pitts wrote in the order filed in the Northern District of California this week.
In dismissing Meta’s argument, Judge Pitts said that Meta’s defence that it could not gather data from its own systems in a timely manner was “simply not credible”.
As a result, Judge Pitts has handed down a pair of sanctions against Meta. In the first instance, the company has been barred from arguing that Forrest could only have proven any wrongdoing by having access to Meta’s data, and, secondly – and arguably more importantly – the jury will be instructed to treat every instance of missing records as an instance where Meta’s tools were used in the creation of the scam ads.
While Meta is yet to publish a statement following the ruling, Forrest said the sanctions are indicative of the company’s “evasive, duplicitous and deeply revealing” conduct.
“Meta has behaved like a corporate bully, by using its size and its systems to resist scrutiny, while ordinary people have been left to pay the price caused by rampant scams on its platforms,” Forrest said in a statement.
“We now have a glimmer of hope of correcting huge injustice inflicted on society. The court has shone a light on litigation tactics that should concern anyone seeking justice against one of the most powerful technology companies in the world.
“Meta’s behaviour goes to the heart of exactly why I brought this case forward. A company that has built a colossal revenue stream off scams, while ordinary people are robbed and exploited, must not be allowed to outrun responsibility or the full weight of the law.”
Judge Pitts ordered Meta to pay Forrest’s fees and costs.
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