Meta could be facing huge legal penalties after a coalition of US states argued the social media giant should pay up to $1.4 trillion in a lawsuit centered on teen mental health.
Brought forward by California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey, the lawsuit essentially accuses Meta of violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which prohibits companies from collecting personal information from children under 13 without parental consent.
If they succeed in the lawsuit and gain the full amount they have proposed, Meta says it could face penalties totalling a staggering $1.4 trillion – a sum equal to the company’s valuation, which Meta has called “outlandish.”
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The states allege that Facebook and Instagram were deliberately designed to be addictive for younger users, contributing to a range of mental health issues including anxiety, depression, self-harm, and suicide. The lawsuit also accuses Meta of misleading the public about the safety risks associated with its platforms.
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Meta has repeatedly denied the allegations and argues the states’ proposed penalties are legally unjustified. In a court filing, the company claimed the four states were improperly double or even triple-counting teens who allegedly experienced harm by calculating penalties based on how much time users spent on Facebook and Instagram each day.
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“These remedies have no basis in the record in this case, are entirely unmoored from the claimed deceptive statements or unfair practices, are based on features this Court has held are immune from liability under Section 230, and violate the legal and due process limits on the scope of [Unfair Practices Act] penalties,” Meta’s lawyers wrote, referring to the federal law that broadly shields online platforms from liability for user generated content.
Meta
Although the specific remedies sought by the states remain unknown, attorneys representing the plaintiffs said during a court hearing that their calculations were based on each state’s laws and estimates of the number of underage users affected.
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Meta also argued that the proposed financial punishment is unprecedented, writing: “A sanction of that size has no analog in the history of consumer protection enforcement,” and describing the states’ proposed remedies as “unsubstantiated” and “outlandish.”
A spokesperson for the California Attorney General’s Office defended the lawsuit, saying: “Our lawsuit alleges Meta has prioritized profits over the safety of kids and fueled the mental health crisis we see impacting a generation of American children. The California Department of Justice looks forward to holding Meta fully accountable at trial in August.”
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They’re currently scheduled to face trial in federal court in Oakland on August 18, and legal experts generally expect any potential penalty to be significantly lower than the $1.4 trillion figure.