General

Montreal man ordered to pay $1 billion to Facebook

Spammer sent more than 4 million emails to users of the social networking site

Quebec’s Superior Court has ordered a Montreal man to pay Facebook more than $1 billion in damages for spamming the social networking site. In all, Adam Guerbuez will have to pay the website’s owners US$1,068,928,721.46, which works out to nearly $250 for each of the 4,366,386 spam messages Guerbuez sent Facebook users in 2008. Though Guerbuez pleaded guilty and didn’t offer a defence, his lawyers have already indicated they plan to appeal the damage claim, which they say was “disproportionate.”

Montreal Gazette

Looking for more?

Get the Best of Maclean's sent straight to your inbox. Sign up for news, commentary and analysis.