Adam Hollander and Elena Roberts are proud to represent corporate accountability nonprofit Ekō, leading responsible investment firm NorthStar Asset Management, and technology-industry accountability nonprofit the Tech Justice Law Project, and file an amicus brief on their behalf, in the case of Facebook, Inc. v. Amalgamated Bank, which the U.S. Supreme Court is hearing this session.

This securities class action against Facebook arises out of the Cambridge Analytica data breach scandal, in which a third party misappropriated and misused over 87 million Facebook users’ personal data. When news of the scandal broke in 2018, Facebook lost over $100 billion of shareholder value, was forced to pay over $5 billion in penalties to federal regulators, and suffered a massive loss of user trust and revenue.

Facebook knew about the breach in 2015, falsely denied Cambridge Analytica’s misconduct at the time, and failed to ensure that user data was protected and not misused moving forward. After the Court of Appeals ruled that Facebook should face liability for failing to disclose the data breach, the Supreme Court agreed to consider whether companies like Facebook must disclose that similar risks have already come to pass. Slarskey LLC and the amici filed this brief to stress to the Court that the data-security issues that the Cambridge Analytica scandal revealed are critically important to Facebook’s users, the technology community, and the public. In turn, these data-security and privacy issues are paramount to company and shareholder value, and directly implicate Facebook investors’ right to have truthful and timely information relevant to buying, selling and voting their Facebook stock.

“We are proud to represent leading investment managers and corporate watchdogs in this important case,” said Slarskey partner Adam Hollander. “The issues in this case concern fundamental questions of shareholder value. Tech consumers care deeply about protecting their personal data. And investors deserve accurate, complete risk disclosures when companies like Facebook both allow data breaches like the Cambridge Analytica scandal and then cover it up with lies and misdirection. We hope that the Court declines Facebook’s invitation to shirk its obligations to its users and shareholders.”

Click here to read the brief.