Meta & Google Found Liable
A Los Angeles jury found Meta and Google liable for designing addictive social platforms that can harm children, awarding millions in damages — a ruling expected to spur more lawsuits and regulatory scrutiny. The verdict directly challenges Big Tech’s product choices and could force increased investment in safety and transparency features. (reuters.com) (bworldonline.com)
The plaintiff in the case was identified in court as K.G.M. (often called “Kaley”), who testified she began using YouTube at about age 6 and Instagram at about age 9 and described “all day” childhood use that her lawyers say worsened depression and suicidal thoughts. (abcnews.com)) After more than 40 hours of jury deliberations stretched across nine days, jurors returned a compensatory verdict of $3 million and then moved into a punitive-damages phase, with multiple outlets reporting punitive awards that brought the reported total to roughly $6 million and the jury assigning about 70% of liability to Meta and 30% to Google. (chicago.suntimes.com)) Jurors answered affirmatively on a verdict form that the companies acted with “malice, oppression or fraud,” a legal finding under California law that opens the door to punitive damages in a second phase of the trial. (newsweek.com)) The trial was one of the early bellwether proceedings tied to coordinated litigation that has consolidated more than 2,000 related claims in federal MDL proceedings and hundreds more in state court coordination, making this case a test for litigation strategy and settlement posture across the mass docket. (aei.org)) The state-court matter was heard in Los Angeles Superior Court before Judge Carolyn B. Kuhl, and lead plaintiff trial teams included Mark Lanier and attorneys from the Social Media Victims Law Center, who framed the case around platform design features such as infinite scroll and autoplay. (usnews.com)) Both companies issued short post-verdict statements saying they disagreed with the jury’s decision and were evaluating or would pursue legal options, with Google saying it planned to appeal and Meta saying it “respectfully disagree[s]” with the outcome. (forbes.com))
