Berman Tabacco has been appointed liaison counsel and a member of plaintiffs’ Executive Committee in In re Facebook, Inc. Shareholder Derivative Privacy Litigation, No. 4:18-CV-01792-HSG, pending before the Honorable Haywood S. Gilliam, Jr. in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California (N.D. Cal.). This is a derivative action brought by Facebook shareholders against certain officers and directors of Facebook, Inc.’s board of directors. Shareholders allege that the officers and directors breached their fiduciary duties and made misrepresentations and omissions related to Facebook’s failure to protect sensitive data for at least 50 million users in violation of state and federal law. More specifically, the complaint claims that the information was shared with Cambridge Analytica, among others, which allegedly weaponized the data to target political advertising and manipulate voters in the lead-up to the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election. In this age of social media, shareholders allege that the officers and directors put profits above privacy, resulting in far-reaching consequences for Facebook and our Republic.
“We look forward to seeking justice and corporate reform on behalf of Facebook shareholders in this important lawsuit” said Daniel E. Barenbaum, a partner in Berman Tabacco’s San Francisco office. The litigation team includes Joseph J. Tabacco, Jr., Daniel E. Barenbaum, and A. Chowning Poppler from the firm’s San Francisco office.