Overview
- The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, May 26, declined to hear Meta’s bid to block Vermont’s 2023 consumer-protection suit, leaving a lower-court ruling that lets the case go forward intact.
- Vermont’s attorney general alleges Instagram was engineered to take advantage of teenagers’ developing brains to drive addictive use, target ads, and that Meta misled consumers about those risks.
- Meta says Vermont lacks jurisdiction because the company did not design Instagram in the state and that the complaint could subject it to suits in every state, and the company denies intentionally targeting children.
- Recent state-court outcomes have strengthened plaintiffs’ position, with a New Mexico jury ordering $375 million in March, a Los Angeles jury awarding $6 million in March, a Massachusetts court allowing a similar suit in April, and a May settlement with a Kentucky school district.
- Legal experts say the Vermont case will test how far state courts can hold a global tech company to account for platform design, and the suits aim to recover public costs and push product changes that affect teens, schools and families.