Quebec Facebook class action can go ahead after Supreme Court declines to hear appeal

A class-action lawsuit alleging Facebook illegally allowed advertisers to target users based on their race, age and gender can move forward after the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from the social media giant.

Facebook had sought to have Canada's highest court overturn a Quebec Court of Appeal decision authorizing the class action.

Audrey Boctor, one of the lawyers behind the suit, said the top court's ruling means the case can now move toward an eventual trial. 

"We know for sure now that the class action can go ahead," she said in an interview Monday. "Facebook had asked the Supreme Court to hear the case and the Supreme Court declined, so that means that the Court of Appeal's judgment stands and now we go forward to the merits."