Meta Settles Two Cases Ahead of Trial, Leaving Snap Alone to Face Jury
Key Facts
Meta reached a settlement with the two plaintiffs scheduled to go to trial in Los Angeles, leaving Snap Inc. as the only defendant expected to face trial. Bloomberg Law reported that the court was notified of a settlement in the K.D.B. case, following Meta’s earlier settlement with S.J. The terms were not disclosed, CBS News reported, leaving the financial details and any other company commitments unclear. Jury selection began on October 28, and opening statements were scheduled for early November. Meta said it would continue to defend itself in court, adding: "We will continue to defend ourselves in court and stand by our record"; the agreement did not end the expected trial against Snap.
The two lawsuits center on allegations that social media platform designs encouraged compulsive use and harmed the plaintiffs’ mental health. The plaintiffs said endless scrolling and features such as Snapstreaks kept them engaged with the platforms and harmed their mental health, according to CBS News. Reuters reported that the allegations included autoplay and infinite scrolling, which the complaints said drove compulsive use. K.D.B. said her use of Meta and Snap platforms from an early age contributed to mental health problems and self-harm. S.J. is 16 and from Illinois, while K.D.B. is 18 and from Mississippi. The companies deny designing their platforms to addict young people; Meta said it disagreed with K.D.B.’s claims, while Snap said the allegations misrepresent the plaintiffs’ experiences and its platform design.
The case was selected from among thousands of pending lawsuits as a test case, according to Reuters, making its potential outcome relevant to the course of similar lawsuits. The jury’s decision could have affected the resolution of those cases, while the current settlement allows jurors to continue considering the allegations against Snap alone. The case is part of a wave of individual lawsuits testing social media platforms’ liability for alleged harms from their product designs. In the first such case to reach trial, a Los Angeles jury found in March that Meta and YouTube had been negligent. The jury awarded the plaintiff total damages of $6 million, split 70% against Meta and 30% against YouTube, according to Meta’s filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company said in the filing that it had filed a notice of appeal.
Snap’s trial was expected to continue through mid-December, plaintiffs’ lawyers told CBS News. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Instagram head Adam Mosseri and Snap CEO Evan Spiegel were also expected to testify. Meta describes these proceedings as part of a series of trials, settlements and dismissals testing the lawsuits, while affirming that it will continue to defend itself. In its filing for the quarter ended September 30, the company said two subsequent groups of bellwether trials were scheduled for March 16, 2027, and August 6, 2027. Those dates follow the consolidated trial whose proceedings began on October 28, 2026. The current settlement is therefore limited to the two plaintiffs who were parties to it, while the legal process for subsequent bellwether cases continues.