Facebook Settles Advertiser Lawsuit for $40 Million

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Facebook has agreed to pay $40 million to advertisers who said it inflated the amount of time its users watch videos.

The San Jose Mercury News reported that the California-based social media giant denied any wrongdoing in the settlement. The settlement notice was filed Friday by the plaintiffs in Oakland Federal Court.

Advertisers sued Facebook in 2016 over user metrics that supposedly measure the average length of time consumers spend viewing posted video ads. The lawsuit said that the time was inflated by up to 900% and that helped persuade advertisers to buy Facebook's video advertising services.

Facebook publicly acknowledged an error in the formula. The company denied allegations that its engineers knew about problems for more than a year and did nothing.

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