The Court of Appeal has held user damages are recoverable in a competition claim, in Meta Platforms Inc and other companies v Gormsen [2026] EWCA Civ 993
The decision is the latest in an ongoing collective action brought by Gormsen. Meta denies the claim in its entirety, and also argued the claimants suffered no pecuniary loss or damage therefore they could not be restored to the position they would have been in had the disputed breach not occurred.
Concluding, Lord Justice Green said caselaw indicated ‘the law can evolve, and is not limited to a narrow band of proprietary torts and can apply to the unlawful extraction of data in circumstances similar to the present. Were it otherwise the statutory prohibition on abuse of a dominant position would risk being severely undermined in its ability to apply in this new and vastly important world where data is rapidly becoming a proxy for money’.
