JPB Liberty Bitcoin Lawsuit against Facebook and Google

[markinaz]

I think I posted this in the wrong section originally, I was curious if anyone else here signed up for this class action lawsuit:

https://www.jpbliberty.com/

It's been a long process, but I hope there will be progress soon and an outcome.  I was curious if anyone else is part of it.  They also have a token (SUFB) that is listed on hive:

https://hive-engine.com/tokens

I am not advocating that as an investment (since I really know nothing about it); however, they did give tokens out to all people who signed up to be part of the lawsuit.

Again, just seeing if anyone else is part of this.

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[Poker Player]

Thank you for sharing this. I had no idea and I find it interesting, although I am skeptical about how successful they can be.

In case anyone had no idea of what this is about or is lazy to visit the link, I quote:

“JPB Liberty is organising a Class Action against Facebook, Google & Twitter for their ongoing ban on Crypto related advertising.
…
    Anyone holding cryptocurrencies or involved in the Cryptocosm can join the Class Action as a Class Member on an anonymous, no win no fee basis.
    Proceedings were filed on 14 August 2020 and class member signup closed on 21 Aug 2020. It may reopen in future.”

They also talk about other potential class actions_

    “Against those Banks which acted in concert to ban cryptocurrency purchases by credit cards.

    Against those Banks which have improperly frozen customer accounts because of perfectly legitimate cryptocurrency transactions.

    Against Regulators who exceeded their legal and constitutional authority in attempting to regulate the Cryptocosm.”

It is certainly cool that they are taking this legal initiative against the established power, and although as I said before I am a little skeptical with the success they may have, I hope they will be successful, at least in some of their demands.

[hugeblack]

“JPB Liberty is organising a Class Action against Facebook, Google & Twitter for their ongoing ban on Crypto related advertising.

Can someone explain to me the legal framework on which this claim is based? These companies operate in the private sector and have terms of use, and cryptocurrencies are not regulated by law, and a large part of these currencies may be scam, so they have logical reasons to ban cryptocurrencies.
These companies banned advertisements, they did not ban discussions or freedom of expression, etc.

[markinaz]

I think the main premise is:

This ban was an anti-trust violation which breached Australia's competition and consumer protection law and caused billions of dollars of damage.
     
Companies doing business in Australia which engage in anti-trust violations can be sued for worldwide damages in Australian Courts.
     
A class action will be brought in the Federal Court of Australia against the Respondents' Australian subsidiaries and parent companies for breaches of the Australian Competition and Consumer Law. The class action will seek damages for worldwide losses of Crypto Industry members and investors. The announcements of the Crypto Ad Ban by the Respondents dropped Crypto markets by hundreds of billions of dollars. Crypto exchange volumes also dropped by 60-90%.

On their blog, I found this comment intriguing:

The advertising ban is still particularly pernicious. At one point during the most recent hearings we had with our #CryptoClassAction case before the court in Australia, the Judge made note of this. The Judge pointed out to us beyond being unable to advertise to people who were directly interested and searching for cryptocurrency related businesses, the advertising ban removed many of the chances for new people to even KNOW about the existence of these products. This is especially acute because Google and Facebook control such large shares of advertising space on 3rd party websites, not just their own.


My honest thoughts are they are likely to settle out of court.  I have watched a lot of the updates and they have a clear case there were damages to the industry overall, and JPB Liberty is pursuing a large amount of damages.   They won some small victories in Australia and I foresee the large pocket books of Facebook and Google just making this go away. 

I'll keep everyone posted if I ever get anything from it.  Or, even better if they ever open up entry again.

Thanks!

Mark

[markinaz]

Australia does seem pretty eager to go after Facebook when possible:

https://www.c[Suspicious link removed]m/2021/02/24/australia-claims-a-win-over-facebook-in-news-battle.html

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/sep/14/facebook-suffers-blow-in-australia-legal-fight-over-cambridge-analytica

https://nypost.com/2022/03/18/facebook-owner-meta-sued-by-australia-over-scam-crypto-ads/

Anyway, wishful thinking on my part!

[mindrust]

I support anything which will hurt these big tech tyrants. If they all disappear tomorrow the world would become a better place. They are the biggest threats to decentralization and freedom of speech. I don't even need to read who is suing these assholes and why. It is just instant support from me because I hate them so much. He should probably sue Amazon too because they host half of the internet and can enforce censorship on whatever they want.

[markinaz]

I support anything which will hurt these big tech tyrants. If they all disappear tomorrow the world would become a better place. They are the biggest threats to decentralization and freedom of speech. I don't even need to read who is suing these assholes and why. It is just instant support from me because I hate them so much. He should probably sue Amazon too because they host half of the internet and can enforce censorship on whatever they want.

I hardly know you and think you are my new best friend.

[hugeblack]

This ban was an anti-trust violation which breached Australia's competition and consumer protection law and caused billions of dollars of damage.
     
Companies doing business in Australia which engage in anti-trust violations can be sued for worldwide damages in Australian Courts.
     
A class action will be brought in the Federal Court of Australia against the Respondents' Australian subsidiaries and parent companies for breaches of the Australian Competition and Consumer Law.

I wish them success, but proving monopolistic competition will be difficult in such cases.
These companies tend to pay some out-of-court fines or compensation, but they will continue to do so, perhaps making regulatory laws would be better than going to the courts, but I hope they at least make progress by making these companies more aware of these ads and trying to remove/add them faster.


In general, despite everything, the crypto-related phishing ads were kept longer than other ads.

[DaveF]

They are going to loose.
1st of all the suit is way too broad
2nd the TOS for advertisers is 'we can not do business with you if you don't feel like it' has been held up in courts all over the world already.
As for the banks I really can't comment.

Now will they settle 1st is a tough question, but as someone once pointed out to me, these big businesses can crush you with their legal teams. BUT the big legal teams do cost a lot to run so at times even settling in the 10s of millions is cheaper.

-Dave

[Poker Player]

They are going to loose.

In law, I do not dare to make such categorical statements. Cases that I have known that seemed to be clear on one side or the other, because there were precedents of similar sentences or other reasons, in the end ended up with a sentence contrary to what would have seemed more logical.

Although they may know that they have little chance of winning and mainly seek a settlement, as you say, it is not only that it costs the companies more to run their legal teams, but also that there is always a certain probability that the sentence is contrary and that also has to be factored in.

[DaveF]

OK, how about 99.999% sure they are going to loose the advertising portion of it.
This has been around the block a few times already (adult services / adult content / certain weapons / I'm sure other stuff I do not remember)
And every time it's come back to they can limit what they allow people to advertise.

-Dave

[markinaz]

Small update, things are moving along:

https://www.jpbliberty.com/post/first-judgement-finding-prima-facie-case-and-giving-leave-to-serve

I guess that is a good sign, not getting my hopes up too much, but who knows!