Facebook says those in lawsuit ‘not legally capable’

Facebook has argued that 25,000 users of its social network who joined a class action lawsuit against the company's data collection practices are not legally capable.

In a 30-page submission to Vienna regional court, Facebook Ireland Ltd disputed in addition that users who signed up to the civil suit of privacy campaigner Max Schrems had "actually assigned their claims to the plaintiff".

“The plaintiff has not proven that (...) [The users] are, as claimed, consumers and have the necessary legal capacity to conduct the assignment as claimed,” it added.

Under Austrian law, two classifications of people exist who are not legally capable: underage and legally insane. Facebook declined to comment yesterday on which definition of legally capable it was referring to.

Mr Schrems of the Europe-v-Facebook campaign ridiculed the claims yesterday as time wasting by the Dublin-based subsidiary of the US company.

“They got some lawyer to think up every possible reason to challenge the case, it’s just further proof they want to delay things,” he said. “Their lawyers know such arguments are so absurd they will be discussed in court for just one minute.”

He said his campaign’s dedicated website required all would-be civil suit participants to confirm they were over 18 by uploading a copy of their passport. Facebook allows users aged 13 and over to use their service.

A report last year suggested that one third of British children aged 9 to 12 years old have a Facebook profile. Last August the High Court in Belfast ordered the company to disclose records on underage users in Northern Ireland.

“They are demanding we be held to a higher standard than they apply to themselves,” said Mr Schrems.

He said Facebook’s submission made no reference to the substance of his claim: that it has not secured users’ valid consent to collect data; analyses user data illegally; tracks users outside the service; and provides user data illegally to the NSA “PRISM” programme.

Over 25,000 users signed up to the Facebook class action suit, which was lodged in August. Mr Schrems says a further 50,000 users from more than 100 countries have also signed up to join the process later.

The class-action civil suit in Vienna follows Mr Schrems’s decision to withdraw his original Facebook complaint, after three years, to Ireland’s data protection commissioner. He argued that the social network’s data collection policies breached EU law but claimed the Irish regulator, responsible for overseeing Facebook’s international activities, was not prepared to challenge the company.