Facebook must compensate for material damages a user who was the victim of embezzlement on Instagram. The decision is from the 3rd Panel of Appeals of the Special Courts of the Federal District, which unanimously upheld the sentence of conviction.
For the magistrates, Facebook failed in the security procedures that were supposed to protect users of the social network. According to the decision, it is the duty of digital service providers to provide secure systems. With this, the company must indemnify the plaintiff in R$ 2,300. The value refers to the amount paid by her in the coup.
According to the victim, she was tricked by a hacked profile that sold a cell phone, for which she paid via Pix. According to the lawsuit, in July 2021, the real user of the profile realized that her account had been hacked and immediately informed Facebook – which, even informed about the use for the practice of scams, kept the account active, under the administration of a third party, for almost three months.
The social network, on the other hand, argued that there is no possibility of applying the Consumer Protection Code because it did not assume “the position of supplier of the purchase and sale business”, but only provided “means for carrying out the transaction”. For Facebook, the responsibility rests exclusively with the author. The company also said that “the Instagram service does not have the duty of monitoring”.
But, according to the decision, the improper performance of a third party, through fraud, “does not break the causal link between the supplier’s conduct and the damages borne by consumers”. This is because this is an inherent risk of the activity performed by the company.
In addition, the magistrates highlighted the delay of Facebook, which for almost 3 months did not take the necessary measures to block the account.
