(San Francisco) Meta filed a lawsuit Wednesday against U.S. regulators who plan to change the terms of a 2020 privacy agreement.
The Silicon Valley giant, known as Facebook at the time the deal was struck, said aspects of the U.S. competition authority’s structure violated the U.S. Constitution, saying which made the proceedings against Meta illegal.
The company claimed in a complaint filed in federal court in Washington that the situation amounted to being decided by “an illegitimate proceeding conducted by an illegitimate decision-maker.”
The actions of the US competition authority make it both a prosecutor and a judge, depriving Meta of due process and usurping the power of the courts, the company argued in its complaint.
The American competition authority proposed changes in May to the privacy agreement it concluded with Facebook in 2020, accusing the company of not respecting the terms of this agreement.
“Facebook has repeatedly violated its privacy promises,” said Samuel Levine, director of the consumer protection office of the American competition authority, adding that “Facebook must answer for its failings”.
The 2020 settlement required Facebook to pay a $5 billion fine, expand child privacy protections and have an independent third party evaluate the effectiveness of its efforts.
According to the US competition authority, the proposed changes to the regulation include prohibiting Meta from profiting from the data it collects, notably through virtual reality products, from users under the age of 18 .
Another proposed change would prohibit Meta from launching new products or services without an evaluator confirming in writing that the new product is fully privacy compliant.
Meta asked the Court to prevent the American competition authority from making these changes.
“Meta respectfully requests that this court declare that certain fundamental aspects of the authority structure are contrary to the Constitution of the United States,” the company said in its petition.
According to Meta’s lawsuit, the U.S. competition authority is seeking to impose broad restrictions on how companies use their intellectual property.