Facebook Sued Over Acquisition of Ferrari Fan Pages

Ferrari fan pages are at the center of a controversial lawsuit against Facebook.

According to a recent report, a Swiss father and his son are suing Facebook after the company gave up their fan pages that had millions of followers. The family is alleging that Facebook and the Italian automaker teamed up to illegally seize control of the fan pages. The lawsuit has been filed in California state court following legal action in Europe between Olivier and Sammy Wasem and Ferrari over the Wasem’s “Ferrari Fan Page” and a separate “Formula 1 Vision” fan page.

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The Wasems’ page originally debuted in June 2008 and according to the family, Ferrari had created its own page that wasn’t as popular. As a result, the Italian automaker asked Facebook to give it administrative control over the Wasems’ fan page. The Wasems’ then allege that in March 2009, Ferrari contacted them saying that “legal issues” had forced it to take over as administrators on their page. According to the complaint, the Wasems and Ferrari began to negotiate on a partnership to manage the fan page in addition to creating a Formula 1 page. In 2012, Facebook had notified the Wasems that they had been downgraded to content creators and last year, the company cut off access to the fan pages entirely.

The Wasems are seeking at least half the value of the two fan pages, which they say attracted over 16-million fans and could be worth anywhere from $174 to over $1,000 per fan from advertising.

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[Source: Automotive News]

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