Meta Platforms Inc. has settled a lawsuit filed by users in 2018 which claimed the company illegally shared user data with UK-based research firm Cambridge Analytica, when it was performing research linked to the campaign of President Donald J. Trump in 2016. It was alleged Facebook allowed the research firm to access the data of as many as 87 million users.

The preliminary settlement was reached shortly after it was revealed that Meta Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg would have to be deposed for as long as six hours by plaintiffs’ lawyers, and Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg would have had to testify as well. The depositions had been scheduled to occur through Sept. 20. The terms of the settlement have not been released.

The plaintiff’s lawyers had steadily been gaining leverage in battles over pre-trial information sharing. As plaintiff’s lawyers gained increasing access into internal company records, Facebook’s parent company could have been on the hook for hundreds of millions, had it lost the case.

Lawyers for both sides had asked the judge on Friday for a pause in the lawsuit to “facilitate the process of finalizing a written settlement agreement”

Meta declined comment on the settlement.

The case is In Re Facebook Consumer Privacy User Profile Litigation, 18-MD-02843, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco).