- Meta faces $1.4 trillion penalty claims from four states over alleged youth addiction harms
- The penalty amount nearly matches Meta's $1.5 trillion market capitalization
- The August trial in California will address consumer law and child privacy violations
Meta Platforms said in a court filing on Monday that four states, California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey, are seeking $1.4 trillion in penalties over allegations the company designed its Facebook and Instagram platforms to addict young users and misled the public about their safety. Meta disclosed the figure in its response to the attorneys general's filings on how penalties should be calculated if the states prevail at trial.
The number, not previously made public, sits close to Meta's market capitalisation of about $1.5 trillion and comes ahead of an August trial in Oakland, California. Meta called the amount unsupported by evidence, saying in the filing that "a sanction of that size has no analog in the history of consumer protection enforcement", according to a Reuters report.
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Case Is Part Of A Wider Wave Of Suits
The states' filings remain sealed, but at a June hearing they said penalties were being calculated by multiplying the number of violations by fine amounts set under state law, with the violation count based on the estimated number of teens and young users affected. Separately, 29 states have sued Meta in federal court, largely alleging violations of the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act over data collected from children without parental consent. The August trial, before US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, will cover claims under that law as well as the four states' allegations of consumer-law violations.
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Meta, Snapchat-parent Snap Inc., YouTube-parent Alphabet Inc., and TikTok-parent ByteDance are facing thousands of similar lawsuits in federal and state courts over claims their platforms were designed to be addictive to children and teenagers. New Mexico was the first state to go to trial on such claims, with a jury awarding it $375 million in March; a second phase of that case, seeking further damages and a court order, is still being weighed by the judge.
Meta has denied the broader allegations, saying the states have no evidence it misled consumers, and arguing that "social media addiction" is not an established psychiatric diagnosis.
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