Online group
Lawsuit from Ohio against Facebook company Meta after price losses
The Facebook group was recently renamed Meta. Photo: Andre M. Chang / ZUMA Press Wire / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
A pension fund from the US state of Ohio accuses the recently renamed Meta group of having deceived investors. Meta describes the lawsuit as unfounded.
After the revelations by Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, the online group is targeted by a weighty lawsuit from the US state of Ohio.
A public service pension fund accuses the company, backed by the attorney general, of having duped investors. The fund made losses on Facebook shares that year.
In the lawsuit against the group, which was recently renamed Meta, the price declines are mainly linked to articles in the “Wall Street Journal” based on Haugen’s internal information. It said, among other things, that Facebook had known through surveys of the harmful influence of its Instagram photo service on many young users.
Meta described the lawsuit in a statement to the Wall Street Journal, among others, as unfounded.
Compensation for course losses demanded
The fund, called Ohio Public Employees Retirement System (OPERS), is seeking class action lawsuits from investors who bought Facebook shares between late April and October 21 of this year. OPERS itself bought a package of 135,000 papers in June at a price of $ 352.78. The fund sold several thousand shares at higher prices in August. According to the disclosure reports, it sold around 11,500 shares in October for just $ 328.53.
A central demand of the lawsuit is compensation for the price losses for the fund and other investors. OPERS points out that in the weeks with the series of articles in the “Wall Street Journal” in September and October alone, the market value of Facebook fell by 150 billion dollars. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost wrote in support of its involvement in the lawsuit that Facebook lied about internal controls and the handling of content harmful to children.