(Ottawa) The Supreme Court of Canada refuses to hear Facebook’s challenge to an authorization of class action against it in Quebec.
The social network therefore loses all its remedies to prevent the action from moving forward.
A Quebec woman, Lyse Beaulieu, has taken this action because she believes she has been discriminated against based on her age due to old Facebook policies.
While she was aged 63 to 65, she used the social network in her job search. She says she couldn’t see any job postings she was interested in because Facebook policies allowed advertisers to target certain age groups at the expense of others.
Facebook has since changed its policy, but Ms. Beaulieu has taken steps to take class action regarding all Facebook users located in Quebec who, since April 11, 2016, “have been explicitly excluded by Facebook’s ad services” by because of their race, sex, marital status, age, origin or social situation.
The Superior Court refused such a class action, but the decision was reversed in the Court of Appeal. Facebook therefore turned to the highest court in the country, which announced Thursday that it will not consider the case.
Meta, Facebook’s parent company, would not comment on the Supreme Court’s decision.
