Bloggers paid for promotion in social networks, but in the beginning of March 2022 the company disabled targeted advertising for Russian users.
The Meshchansky District Court of Moscow partially satisfied the claim of Russian bloggers to Meta (*designated as extremist and banned in Russia) and ordered the American company to pay the plaintiffs a total of 4.5 million rubles, 3 million rubles of which — the costs they incurred for targeting advertising, reported "Vedomosti".
Appeal to the court last October was initiated by the public movement "Council of Bloggers”. According to the text of a copy of the suit (“Vedomosti” has it), the bloggers demanded a refund from Meta for the money spent on targeting ads on Instagram and Facebook (owned by Meta and blocked in Russia). They purchased them to promote their publications on these social networks back in 2021 and early 2022. At the beginning of March 2022, when Meta turned off targeting for Russians, the claimants were deprived of the opportunity to use the inventory they had already paid for.
The plaintiffs believe that Meta thereby violated the law "On Protection of Consumer Rights" and demanded to pay them 18 million rubles. Of which 15 million rubles — сompensation for moral damage, expressed, as it follows from the text of the claim, "in mental suffering, stress in connection with the fall of the coverage in social networks.”
The court ordered to pay each of the applicants 5 thousand rubles for moral damages. In addition, Meta will pay a fine of 2 thousand 921 rubles to 476 thousand rubles for each blogger. Representatives of Meta did not attend the trial.
Source: Vedomosti
