The Leipzig District Court has awarded Facebook users EUR 5000 in compensation for data protection violations from Meta’s Business Tools.
This marks a significant precedent in European privacy enforcement. The German court offered the judgment on July 4th, 2025, finding that Meta Platforms Ireland Limited breached the General Data Protection Regulation through its extensive tracking infrastructure.
The court found that Meta's Business Tools constitute massive violations of European data protection law through extensive surveillance of users' online behaviour, generating billions in advertising revenue from unauthorised personal data processing. Tracking tools embedded by numerous website operators on their platforms and applications transmitted user data from Instagram and Facebook to Meta. Every user remained individually identifiable to Meta whenever they navigated third-party websites or used apps, even without logging into their Instagram or Facebook accounts.
This data is transferred globally to third countries, particularly to the US, where the company processes the information to an unknown extent for users. The data processing scale is extensive, potentially contributing to unlimited data volumes and resulting in complete surveillance over users’ online behaviour.
Compensation for Facebook users
The 5th Civil Chamber, responsible for data protection law, based its decision exclusively on Article 82 of the GDPR rather than national personality rights law, according to the court filing. This decision distinguishes the Leipzig District Court’s ruling from similar cases in other German courts, establishing a European framework for deciding compensation damages. Privacy advocates have documented numerous instances where Meta's tracking methods operated without user knowledge or consent.
The court decided on a EUR 5000 compensation by calculating the commercial value of personal data for Meta’s advertising, as it operates on one of the biggest advertising platforms in social media, according to the Federal Cartel Office. However, the chamber acknowledged potential outcomes of its decision, such as the possibility that Facebook users might file lawsuits without explicitly demonstrating individual damages.
