On Wednesday, after sitting through more than a month of testimony and deliberating for a week, a jury in California found that Meta Platforms Inc. and Google’s YouTube owed a woman $3 million in compensatory damages and $3 million in punitive damages, agreeing the tech companies’ platforms were designed to be addictive and caused her mental health issues.
“This jury saw exactly what we presented from the very first day of trial: that these companies built digital spaces designed to negatively influence the brains of children, and they did it on purpose,” Mark Lanier of The Lanier Law Firm, who represented the plaintiff, said in a statement.
“The evidence showed that Meta and YouTube knew their platforms were hooking children and harming their mental health, and instead of fixing the problem they kept developing features to maximize the time kids spent on their apps. Now a jury has told them that is not acceptable, and you are being held accountable.”
Soon after the jury returned its compensatory damages verdict in Los Angeles County Superior Court, the punitive damages phase of the trial began. The 20-year-old plaintiff in the lawsuit, identified only as K.G.M., had alleged she became depressed and suicidal during her teenage and preteen years as a result of her use of the social media platforms, which began when she was 6 years old.
The jury, which also found the tech companies acted with malice, oppression and fraud, assessed liability as follows: Meta 70 percent, YouTube 30 percent.
This is a bellwether case in litigation brought by more than 1,600 plaintiffs. TikTok and Snap were originally defendants in this case but reached a settlement prior to trial.
Meta and Google are also facing federal multidistrict litigation of more than 2,300 cases in the Northern District of California, and the first trial is expected to begin in June.
The plaintiff was also represented by Rachel Lanier of The Lanier Law Firm, Paul R. Kiesel, Mariana A. McConnell and Cherisse H. Cleofe of Kiesel Law, Joseph G. VanZandt and Davis Vaughn of Beasley Allen Crow Methvin Portis & Miles and Brian J. Panish, Rahul Ravipudi and Jesse Creed of Panish | Shea | Ravipudi.
Google and YouTube are represented by Luis Li, Melissa Mills, Ariel C. Anaba, Lauren Gallo White and Samantha A. Machock of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.
Meta is represented by Ashley M. Simonsen, Alice L. Greenhill, Phyliss A. Jones and Paul W. Schmidt of Covington & Burling.
The case number is 22STCV21355