A little more than a week before trial was slated to begin, a settlement has apparently been reached in a case where Texas alleged Meta Platforms, formerly known as Facebook, had unlawfully used the biometric data of Texans without their consent and for commercial use.
On Friday morning, the Texas Supreme Court granted a joint motion to abate the case while the parties worked to formalize the terms of a settlement reached in principle following a mediation on May 30.
“Today, May 31, 2024, the parties jointly moved to stay proceedings in the trial court while the parties finalize their agreement, and the trial court granted that motion,” the joint motion reads. “With settlement imminent, the parties agree that it is in their best interests to abate this petition. Abatement will avoid burdening this Court with potentially unnecessary briefing and will preserve this Court’s and the parties’ time and resources.”
The Texas Supreme Court agreed to abate the case until Aug. 6, at which time the parties will have to file either a status report or a motion to dismiss.
Texas filed suit in February 2022, accusing Meta of violating both the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act and the Texas Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier Act with its facial recognition technology.
“Of relevance here, for over a decade, while holding itself out as a trusted meeting place for Texans to connect and share special moments with family and friends, Facebook was secretly capturing, disclosing, unlawfully retaining — and profiting off of — Texans’ most personal and highly sensitive information: records of their facial geometries, which Texas law refers to as biometric identifiers,” Texas alleged in its first amended petition.
The case had been assigned to Harrison County District Judge Brad Morin, and jury selection was slated to begin June 17.
Meta is represented by Trey Cox, Allyson Ho, Andrew LeGrand, Ashley Rogers, Bradley G. Hubbard, Christine Demana, Erin M. Choi, Matthew Scorcio, Collin Cox, Gregg Costa, Prerak Shah, Benjamin D. Betner and Lauren Goldman of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, Matthew D. Provance of Mayer Brown and Harry Gillam Jr. and McKellar L. Karr of Gillam & Smith.
Texas is represented by Ryan Baasch, Christin Vasquez, Jennifer Roscetti, Brad Schuelke, Jennifer Severn and Gabriella Gonzalez of the office of the attorney general, Jennifer Truelove, Samuel F. Baxter, John B. Campbell and Lewis T. LeClair of McKool Smith and Zina Bash and Ashley Keller of Keller Postman.
The Harrison County case number is 22-0121. The Texas Supreme Court case number is 24-0046.