Facebook investor class-action suit cleared in US

A US judge has cleared a class-action suit against social networking giant Facebook from investors claiming it failed to fully disclose its risks at the time of its 2012 share offering, a media report said.

Judge Robert Sweet on December 11 certified the class-action suit which claimed Facebook failed to provide adequate information to all its investors, phys.org reported on Thursday.

In the case led by the North Carolina Retirement Systems, Raleigh, and other public pension funds, the plaintiffs claimed Facebook withheld key financial information ahead of the initial public offering in 2012.

The judge said there was evidence presented that some investors failed to get the same information as investment banks and other institutional investors that were close to the underwriters.

He said the case could move forward with "subclasses" of retail and institutional investors.

Facebook has denied the accusations and said it would appeal against the decision.