The Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) and Meta Platforms, Inc., on Monday informed a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja that they have amicably settled the dispute on the $32.8 million fine imposed against the latter by the regulatory agency.
At the last sitting on the matter on October 31, parties informed the court that they will be filing terms of settlement in the matter at the next adjourned date, which was Monday, November 3, 2025.
When the matter was called on Monday, counsel to Meta Platforms, Inc., Fred Onuobia, SAN, informed the court that the plaintiff and the respondents had reached a settlement in the matter and had filed the terms of settlement before the court on October 31, 2025.
The senior lawyer prayed the trial Judge, Justice James Omotosho, to accept the terms of settlement as the judgment of the court.
NDPC’s lawyer, Adeola Adedipe, SAN, confirmed Onuobia’s submission and urged the court to enter judgment on the terms of settlement parties filed before the court.
Justice Omotosho, in a ruling, held that, ‘Terms of settlement reached by parties in suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/355/2025 dated October 30, 2025 and filed on October 31, 2025, having been agreed by all the parties, is hereby entered as the judgment of the court in this suit’.
The judge commendedthe parties for the terms of settlement, which he said had saved the judicial time of the court.
The NDPC had, on February 18, imposed both a remedial fee of 32,800,000 million US dollars and eight corrective orders against Meta Inc.
The company was alleged to have violated the fundamental privacy rights of its Nigerian users with respect to behavioural advertising on Facebook and Instagram.
Dissatisfied with the action, Meta Platforms Inc., in a motion ex-parte dated and filed on February 26, dragged the regulatory agency to court as the sole respondent.
In the motion ex-parte marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/355/2025 and moved by Fred Onuobia, SAN, on March 4, Justice Omotosho granted leave to Meta to commence proceedings by way of judicial review seeking, inter alia, an order of certiorari quashing the compliance and enforcement orders dated February 18 issued by NDPC against the company.
Meta platform urged the court to nullify ‘all other investigations, proceedings and actions taken by the respondent against the applicant leading to the final orders.’
The judge, however, refused to grant Meta’s relief seeking a stay of the proceedings of all matters relating to the ‘Final Orders’ issued by NDPC against it, pending the hearing and determination of the judicial review proceedings. Instead, the judge made an order of accelerated hearing of the suit.
But NDPC, in a preliminary objection filed by its lawyer, told the court that the suit was incompetent and the court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the same.
The regulatory agency, in its objection filed on April 11, urged the court to either strike out or dismiss the case.
Adedipe, in two grounds of argument, submitted that the originating summons filed by the company is incompetent for non-compliance with the mandatory provision of Order 34 Rule 6(1) of the FHC (Civil Procedure) Rules, 2019.
Quoting the provision, the lawyer said: ‘No ground shall be relied upon or any relief sought at the hearing, except the grounds and reliefs sought in the statement’ and also argued that the suit, as presently constituted, is grossly incompetent and academic, the reliefs sought therein not being capable of activating the jurisdiction of the court.
‘The suit is liable to be struck out/dismissed, in limine,’ Adedipe had argued.
The fine against Meta came as one of the measures by the NDPC to protect Nigerians’ data under the Nigeria Data Protection Act, signed into law by President Bola Tinubu in June 2023.