High Court: Facebook trials will be in Israel, not California

The ruling could impact over 4.5 million Facebook users.

By YONAH JEREMY BOB
Updated: JUNE 1, 2018 01:05
A LOGO of Twitter is pictured next to the logo of Facebook. (photo credit: REUTERS/DADO RUVIC/ILLUSTRATION/FILE PHOTO)
A LOGO of Twitter is pictured next to the logo of Facebook.
(photo credit: REUTERS/DADO RUVIC/ILLUSTRATION/FILE PHOTO)
A wide array of Israelis’ class action lawsuits against Facebook will be litigated in Israeli courts, despite the fact that the plaintiffs signed contracts which say that any dispute will be litigated in California, the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday.
The decision was in line with Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit’s legal opinion that multinational contracts in such situations, where there was a major power imbalance between simple customers and a multinational corporation, cannot enforce unreasonable provisions forcing the average customer to litigate their issue overseas.
The ruling could affect more than 4.5 million Facebook users in Israel.
The Supreme Court did distinguish between Facebook Ireland and Facebook US customers.
Whereas Israeli courts hearing cases from Facebook Ireland’s Israeli customers will need to apply California law in their courts, Israeli courts hearing Facebook US Israeli customers can apply Israeli law.
A statement from the Justice Ministry indicated that most Israeli Facebook users are currently tied to Facebook Ireland.