• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, July 3, 2025

A South Carolina gym that is suing Meta Platforms for allegedly overcharging advertisers by $4 billion, should not be able to obtain evidence from the tech company until the judge rules on its bid to dismiss the lawsuit, Meta argues.

"This is a quintessential case in which discovery should be stayed while the court determines whether plaintiff has any valid claim," Meta writes in a motion filed Wednesday with U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco.

The company adds that a "preliminary peek” at its arguments in favor of dismissal would support its bid to halt the matter. Among other arguments, Meta says Iron Tribe's claims are outside California's four-year statute of limitations.

Meta's new motion comes in a class-action complaint brought earlier this year by Iron Tribe Fitness, which alleged Facebook's auction system failed to protect advertisers from overbidding.

Iron Tribe alleged that starting in 2013, and continuing until at least 2017, Facebook purported to use a version of a “second price” auction system but instead, inadvertently, used a “blended price” system.

In a “second price” auction, the company with the highest bid wins the auction, but isn't charged more than the company with the second highest bid. But in a “blended price” system, the winning bidder is charged a price between its bid and the bid that came in second.

The move to a “blended price” system was due to an error in a 2013 software update, according to Iron Tribe's complaint.

Meta recently urged Breyer to dismiss the case at an early stage for several reasons.

Among others, according to Meta, Iron Tribe's deadline to sue expired in 2021. Meta also argued that the allegations in the complaint, even if proven true, wouldn't prove that the company broke its contract with Iron Tribe.

Among other arguments, Meta says Iron Tribe didn't actually allege that it was overcharged.

Breyer is expected to consider Meta's request in August.