A social media addiction lawsuit filed against Meta was dropped ahead of a jury trial.
TechCrunch reported on July 22 that the case ended after the plaintiff dropped the Meta lawsuit a day after reaching a tentative agreement with Snap.
Meta said the plaintiff dropped the lawsuit without receiving anything from Meta. TikTok and Google’s YouTube had previously reached settlements with the plaintiff, and Snap also confirmed it had reached a tentative agreement on July 21.
The case was filed by Florida teenager R.K.C. against Meta, TikTok, Google’s YouTube and Snap. The plaintiff argued the companies created addictive platforms. The lawsuit was one of thousands of similar cases filed by teenagers, schools and state attorneys general against big tech companies.
Los Angeles Superior Court in California was set to hold a bellwether jury trial in the case next week. The trial had drawn attention as a precedent that could affect the scope of liability over features designed to increase user time on platforms, such as infinite scroll and constant notifications.
Meta planned to argue at the trial that the plaintiff used Facebook and Instagram accounts for only a few minutes a day on average. It also planned to raise that most of the plaintiff’s accounts were created after hiring a lawyer.
The lawsuit’s withdrawal came after Meta lost a New Mexico case earlier this year. At the time, Meta was ordered to pay a $375 million penalty after being found liable for misleading consumers about the safety of its platforms and putting children at risk. A Los Angeles jury in March also returned a $6 million damages verdict against Meta and Google.