Suing Meta in Dublin, from our base in the UK

DemiDee

Hello lovely people,

Our charity's Facebook account was pulled in March without so much as a warning or reason. In our 13 years of existence, we'd built up 30,000 likes and all wonderful reviews on what was our main platform. The lack of our Facebook page has resulted in a dire situation for our small charity and the trustees have already sent a letter before action. We now want to follow it up with a claim and wondered whether a small claim would be allowed, given that Meta's offices are in Dublin. If not, then what court process should we use in order to take them to task?  Thank you in advance for any help or personal experience you can provide.

la531983

What contract has been breached?

Okell

DemiDee said:

Hello lovely people,

Our charity's Facebook account was pulled in March without so much as a warning or reason. In our 13 years of existence, we'd built up 30,000 likes and all wonderful reviews on what was our main platform. The lack of our Facebook page has resulted in a dire situation for our small charity and the trustees have already sent a letter before action. We now want to follow it up with a claim and wondered whether a small claim would be allowed, given that Meta's offices are in Dublin. If not, then what court process should we use in order to take them to task?  Thank you in advance for any help or personal experience you can provide.

What would be the legal basis of your claim?

As a charity can't be " a consumer" I'd suggest you'd be better posting on the charity board (I'll ask for your post to be moved there) or on a forum specialising in legal issues like Legal Beagles  General Legal Issues - LegalBeagles Forum

GingerTim

And if they are based in Ireland you will have to pursue them in the Irish courts.

Alderbank

GingerTim said:

And if they are based in Ireland you will have to pursue them in the Irish courts.

Are you certain about that?

Facebook have been a registered company in the UK since 2007.
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/06331310


According to their business help, following Brexit Meta have transferred a number of their UK business functions from  Meta Platforms Ireland Limited to Meta Platforms, Inc.
'Updating our Business Terms for UK user changes'
https://www.facebook.com/business/help/1127818887766516

This is all big boys stuff compared with our usual consumer fare on this site. If the OP is determined to sue them, they or the Charity's lawyers need to liaise with Meta to determine the correct entity to issue any claims against otherwise they will just be throwing their money away.

GingerTim

Alderbank said:

GingerTim said:

And if they are based in Ireland you will have to pursue them in the Irish courts.

Are you certain about that?

Facebook have been a registered company in the UK since 2007.
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/06331310


According to their business help, following Brexit Meta have transferred a number of their UK business functions from  Meta Platforms Ireland Limited to Meta Platforms, Inc.
'Updating our Business Terms for UK user changes'
https://www.facebook.com/business/help/1127818887766516

This is all big boys stuff compared with our usual consumer fare on this site. If the OP is determined to sue them, they or the Charity's lawyers need to liaise with Meta to determine the correct entity to issue any claims against otherwise they will just be throwing their money away.

I did say 'if'!

But agreed, this is well beyond this forums remit, and if the OP is determined to pursue this they should take advice from m'learned friends.

DullGreyGuy

DemiDee said:

Our charity's Facebook account was pulled in March without so much as a warning or reason. In our 13 years of existence, we'd built up 30,000 likes and all wonderful reviews on what was our main platform. The lack of our Facebook page has resulted in a dire situation for our small charity and the trustees have already sent a letter before action. We now want to follow it up with a claim and wondered whether a small claim would be allowed, given that Meta's offices are in Dublin. If not, then what court process should we use in order to take them to task?  Thank you in advance for any help or personal experience you can provide.

You dont have a statutory right to a Facebook page so you are going to have to understand the contract underwhich you were operating, have a clear aguement of how Facebook have breached that contract, be able to substantiate the damages suffered as a direct result. If you already know all these things then you understand the contract well enough to know which legal jurisdiction applies to it and so which courts you must use. 

DemiDee

Thank you all for your excellent input and thoughts. I can see this is going to be more complex than we'd first imagined, not least of all because their main HQ is in Dublin (and that is where our LBA was sent) and we're in the UK. The monies lost (calculated via looking at our like-for-like donations during the same period of time last year) as well as the reputational damage is considerable to a small charity like ours, and if any other company large or small was just pulling services from whomever it wished, there would be legal redress.

I see online that many people, particularly in the US, have gone down the small claims route and had success. Oftentimes, a judgement is ruled in their favour because Meta simply doesn't turn up to contest it. Other times, it allows for dialogue which clearly isn't happening in most cases.  Right now, we just want our page back and some redress for the monies lost. I know, I know, we can't sue for fairness, but there must be some legal redress. I will report back to my fellow trustees with the information you have all kindly given, and we hope to find a way forward.

DullGreyGuy

Simply showing you were getting £20,000 per month before with a Facebook page and now you are getting £3,000 a month doesn't substantiate that the drop is directly linked to the loss of the Facebook page. You'd need much more evidence of the link

Phoenix72

Do not get your hopes up based on anything that has happened in the US Courts.

Hate to disappoint you but your statement "there must be legal redress" is simply not true. As said earlier there is no legal right to a FB page and to be frank if the whole business model was based on one social media platform that wasn't a good plan.

Would suggest you take proper legal advice before starting any action.

PHK

Your statement that any other company pulling services would give legal redress, is incorrect. No company has to do business with you and unless there is discrimination under the equality act they can withdraw service. 

Can I check that you are actually a charity and not a Community Interest Company? I know Facebook and other platforms rightly removed some CICs that were acting as Charities.