This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here.<\/p>\n
See more from the L.A. Times in Google Search. Set us as preferred<\/p>\n
A blockbuster battle in federal court is set to open in Oakland this month, pitting Silicon Valley against attorneys for the state of California in a $1.4-trillion contest with existential stakes and potentially eye-watering payouts.<\/p>\n
In true Hollywood fashion, the record-smashing, celebrity-studded legal drama is also a sequel.<\/p>\n
At the heart of the fight is an essential, hotly contested question: Is social media addiction even real?<\/p>\n
Meta\u2019s answer, articulated across years of filings and months of litigation, is a resounding \u201cno.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, Meta lost two groundbreaking civil suits in state courts, with juries in Santa Fe, N.M., and Los Angeles concluding its products were harmful to children in verdicts rendered just hours apart. The company is appealing both cases.<\/p>\n
The outcome Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court is potentially precedent-setting for thousands of other pending lawsuits nationwide and could reshape how tech companies are held accountable for children\u2019s harm caused by their products.<\/p>\n
The damages were relatively small: $375 million to New Mexico for enabling child predators and $4.2 million to Kaley Glenn-Mills in Los Angeles for designing features to hook kids, figures well below Sandoz\u2019s generic drug price-fixing settlement and L.A.\u2019s most recent dog-bite payout, respectively.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, a New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay an additional $567 million on top of the earlier damage judgment, ruling the company was a \u201cpublic nuisance.\u201d In a July 29 earnings report, Meta said that the 2026 trials could \u201csignificantly impact\u201d its bottom line.<\/p>\n
Now, attorneys general in California and three other states are hoping to parlay that success into an unprecedented verdict in federal court, one that could prove far more significant \u2014 and orders of magnitude more costly \u2014 than any civil suit before.<\/p>\n
The states allege Meta intentionally designed its products to addict kids and repeatedly lied to the public about it, telling parents and politicians its apps were safe for children while mining underage users for valuable data. The lawsuit seeks a whopping $1.4 trillion in damages from the company.<\/p>\n
The company\u2019s lawyers have filed a motion to block the \u201cstaggering figure\u201d from reaching jurors when the trial opens on Aug. 18, arguing it is unprecedented.<\/p>\n
Meta argues it can\u2019t keep very young kids off its apps, and that there\u2019s equal evidence showing its products are good for older adolescents as to suggest they might be harmful.<\/p>\n
To cast doubt on the existence of social media addiction, Meta\u2019s lawyers have zeroed in on the absence of a formal diagnosis in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, often called the bible of psychiatry, or the DSM.<\/p>\n