A class action lawsuit has been filed against Facebook in a Los Angeles County Superior Court alleging that the company commercially misappropriated the names and likenesses of minors without parental consent. The plaintiffs are seeking financial restitution for revenues and profits the company and third-parties earned from the alleged charges.
In the suit, David Cohen v. Facebook (case #BC444482), the plaintiffs argue that there have been more than one million instances where Facebook has misappropriated a minor’s name or likeness for profit.
At the core of the class action lawsuit is Facebook’s “Like” button, and the Facebook ads that include photos and text descriptions of Facebook users who “Like” the company or the ad. The plaintiffs believe that Facebook is obligated to get parental consent before using minors’ “Likes” for commercial gain.
“When a teenager sees that their Facebook friends ‘Like’ an ad, it piques their curiosity, making them more likely to click the ad or visit the page,” says Los Angeles plaintiff attorney John Torjesen of John C. Torjesen & Associates. “We believe it is a clear case of exploitation of children for the sake of profits.”
The text of the suit further details, “Facebook encourages the participation of children on its social networking website, stressing the authenticity of the experience of communicating with friends. It then markets the names and likenesses of those children for us by advertisers, representing to advertisers that the use of the name and/or likeness of the child as an endorsement of the advertiser’s product can increase marketing returns by 400% compared to advertising that does not include an endorsement from the name or likeness of a child.”
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of all Facebook members affected by the company’s alleged wrong doing — minors “whose names and likenesses were used in a Facebook advertisement or landing page.”
Facebook denies any wrongdoing. “We believe this suit is completely without merit and we will fight it vigorously. The complaint misunderstands the law, it’s intent and the way Facebook works. For example, plaintiffs assert that minors are marketing Facebook through search engines but we do not allow minors to include their profiles in search engines,” said Andrew Noyes, Facebook’s manager of public policy communications, in a statement provided to Mashable.
In 2009, Facebook settled a class action lawsuit for $9.5 million over its now-defunct Beacon program.
[img credit: Thomas Roche]
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