Kings Casino Lawsuit Against Facebook Will Be Processed In The Czech Republic

Kings Casino which is based in the Czech Republic has filed a $23.3 million lawsuit against social media giant Facebook over fake advertising that has damaged the reputation of the casino and also caused it financial losses.

Facebook was trying to get the case to be processed through the Irish legal system since Facebook as its European head office in Dublin, Ireland.

The legal team for Kings Casino did not want the case to be processed in Ireland as most of the EU lawsuits against Facebook have been processed in Ireland. Kings Casino wanted the lawsuit to be processed in the Czech Republic and they will get their wish.

Why is Kings Casino Suing Facebook?

Facebook ran ads on its platform on behalf of Kings Casino advertising their products and services. However this wasn’t the real Kings Casino advertising on Facebook but a fake operator who used real images of Kings Casino and misled Facebook users to a fake site.

Facebook failed to detect a fraudulent operator and approved fraudulent ads. To make matters worse, when Kings Casino contacted the social media operator and informed them what was going on, the customer support team went silent on them. Kings Casino owner Leon Tsoukernik said they reached out multiple times to customer support to take down the ads but they got the silent treatment.

Kings Casino had no option but to take the legal route as the fake ads were continuing to run on Facebook. Tsoukernik claims that these fake ads damaged the reputation of the real Kings Casino and resulted in financial loses as the fake operator was using Facebook to steal business away from the real site.

Tsoukernik points out that as per the law in the Czech Republic, every gambling ad is supposed to carry with it a responsible gambling message. The fake ads on Facebook did not have any responsible gambling message but was still approved by Facebook.

Tsoukernik is happy to see the case get tried in the Czech Republic and is currently waiting for an official date for the hearing.

Will Facebook Settle Out of Court?

The multi-billion dollar social media giant has faced a number of lawsuits in the past including one filed by the Winklevoss Twins and Divya Narendra who alleged that founder Mark Zuckerberg stole their idea and source code to start Facebook. The case never went to court as Facebook settled out of court in 2008 for $65 million.

Facebook prefers to settle out of court and it is quite likely that Facebook and Tsoukernik might make a financial deal before it goes to court.