Consolidated Trial of Meta and Snap Begins in Los Angeles After $6 Million Damages Precedent
Key Facts
A consolidated trial bringing together two teenagers’ claims against Meta and Snap begins on October 28, 2026, in Los Angeles Superior Court, in a new test of social media companies’ responsibility for their platform design and alleged psychological harm to young users. Judge Carolyn Kuhl ordered the cases of plaintiffs identified in court records as S.J. and K.D.B. to be joined in one trial before a single jury, rather than heard in separate courtrooms. Meta and Snap therefore remain defendants in the trial after TikTok settled with the plaintiffs in August 2026, followed by YouTube on September 25, under confidential terms. The claims allege that platform features were designed to attract young users and caused them psychological harm. Meta denies the allegations and says it has worked to protect children across its platforms.
Social media companies’ lawyers objected to combining the cases. At an August hearing, Meta lawyer William Geraghty said it would be difficult to track the evidence in one case and that presenting two cases to jurors would be "so confusing as to be unworkable." Judge Kuhl found that differences between the plaintiffs’ claims could be managed through appropriate procedures for organizing the jury’s work. She said those procedures would prevent confusion and allowed both cases to be presented to the same jury. The decision makes the joint trial a forum for examining individual claims within a broader wave of lawsuits over social media harms to young people. Another bellwether trial scheduled for July had been halted after the plaintiff, a Florida teenager identified by the initials R.K.C., dropped his claims before jurors were sworn in.
The trial follows a March 2026 verdict in Los Angeles in the first individual bellwether trial, in which a jury held Meta and Google liable for causing plaintiff K.G.M. depression and anxiety and ordered them to pay combined damages of $6 million. That precedent may serve as a reference for subsequent individual claims, while the new case involves two plaintiffs and two lawsuits joined in one trial. In a separate case in New Mexico, a jury ordered Meta in March to pay $375 million in a lawsuit brought by U.S. states. A judge then found on August 6 that the company had caused a public nuisance and ordered it to pay an additional $567 million for remediation costs, along with measures to protect young people. The rulings show that legal risks span individual lawsuits and separate government cases, each with its own claims and proceedings.
Meta settled in August 2026 a federal lawsuit concerning child safety and privacy that included claims by 29 states alleging violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. But that settlement does not cover the individual cases before the court in Los Angeles, nor does it end thousands of other lawsuits in federal and state courts accusing social media companies of harming young users. These multiple cases leave open the possibility of additional verdicts or product changes as part of the legal dispute, without the states’ settlement determining the outcomes of individual claims. According to EL7 market data, Meta shares’ closing price fell from $697.52 on October 21 to $620.19 on October 27, 2026. Those prices record the stock’s movement in the period before the trial, while the current case remains tied to individual claims and platform design.
Meta’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission identify two upcoming dates in the individual bellwether case schedule: the next group of trials begins on March 16, 2027, and a later group begins on August 6, 2027. The filing also points to another bellwether trial for school district cases scheduled for February 2027. These dates place the Los Angeles case within a series of upcoming proceedings that will test different claims concerning alleged harms to young people. The results of bellwether trials may affect the course of similar claims, while each lawsuit retains its own facts and demands. The October 28 trial remains the next step in this process after TikTok and YouTube settled with the plaintiffs.