SAN FRANCISCO (Legal Newsline) – A Pennsylvania man alleges social media giant Facebook has "deprived" him of "hundreds of millions of dollars" because of its paid for reach program.
Jason Fyk filed a complaint on Aug. 22 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against Facebook Inc. alleging intentional interference with prospective economic and advantage/relations, fraud/intentional misrepresentation and other counts.
According to the complaint, the plaintiff maintained businesses/pages on Facebook's media platform and alleges he had more than 25 million views/followers. He alleges his 11 pages made "hundreds of thousands of dollars a month in advertising and/or web trafficking earnings."
He alleges Facebook "destroyed" his businesses/pages when it "stole the value for its own commercial gain by changing its operating system and forcing itself into the business arenas others had developed." He alleges he was coerced by Facebook to pay $43,000 toward "worthless" optional paid for reach program.
The plaintiff holds Facebook Inc. responsible because the defendant allegedly forced plaintiff to pay a supposedly optional paid for reach program under threat of crippling his businesses/pages, and aided and abetted in the fire sale of eight of plaintiff's businesses/pages to another competitor.
The plaintiff requests a trial by jury and seeks judgment against defendant for compensatory damages in excess of the $75,000, reimbursement of approximately $43,000, punitive damages, attorney's fees, costs, interest, and other relief as the court deems just. He is represented by Sean R. Callagy and Michael J. Smikun of Callagy Law PC in Paramus, New Jersey; Jeffrey L. Greyber of Callagy Law PC in Boca Raton, Florida; and Constance J. Yu of Putterman Landry + Yu LLP in San Francisco.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California case number 18-cv-05159