A proposed class action complaint filed in California federal court on December 20, 2017, alleges that T-Mobile, Amazon, and hundreds of other companies are discriminating against older workers by limiting the audience for their Facebook advertisements to only reach younger users.
The Communications Workers of America alleged on behalf of a proposed class of older workers that companies, at Facebook Inc.’s prompting, are limiting the audience that sees their want ads to audiences under the age of 40, or setting other upper-end age limitations that would stop older workers from ever even seeing the recruitment advertisements, according to the suit.
Even Facebook itself, which isn’t named specifically as a defendant in the suit, recruits for open positions using age limitations on its ads, the CWA said. The practice, according to the allegations, violates the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967. Facebook has a step in its advertising process that encourages companies to limit the audience for their advertisements for a more targeted reach.
The case is Communications Workers of America et al. v. T-Mobile US Inc. et al., case number 5:17-cv-07232, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.