The court quashed Facebook’s argument that it did not carry on business in Australia
The Full Federal Court has thrown out a bid by Meta (formerly Facebook) to sidestep a lawsuit accusing the tech giant of breaching Australian privacy laws through the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
The decision, which was handed down on 7 February, comes almost two years after the Australian Information Commissioner commenced legal proceedings against Meta in March 2020. The suit focused on Meta’s collection of the data of 300,000 Australian users through a personality quiz entitled This Is Your Digital Life.
Before the Federal Court, Meta argued that it could not be liable under Australian laws because it did not operate in Australia; neither did it collect or store personal information in the country. The court rejected Meta’s submission.
On appeal, Justice Nye Perram found “no error” with the Federal Court’s decision, concluding that Meta’s use of cookies indicated it was “carrying on its worldwide business of data processing in this country.” He described as “divorced from reality” Meta’s submission, which stated that “all that happened” was that action taken abroad had resulted in an effect within Australia.
“While Facebook Inc’s description of what is occurring is not wrong, it is pitched at such a high level of generality that it is, in my respectful opinion, useless as a tool of analysis,” Perram said. He added that the Federal Court was “correct to conclude that an inference was open that Facebook Inc was carrying on business in Australia.”
Chief Justice James Allsop agreed, dismissing Meta’s suggestion that its business took place abroad.
Australian Information Commissioner and Privacy Commissioner Angelene Falk welcomed the decision. She said in a 7 February statement that her office would “continue to move forward with the case and looked forward to the hearing of substantive matters.”
The commissioner was required to seek leave to launch legal action against the social media giant due to Meta being based in the US.
