Snap settles teen social media addiction suit before Los Angeles trial

A settlement days before trial

Snap has settled a lawsuit filed by two young women who said the Snapchat app was designed to be addictive and had driven their depression, anxiety and eating disorders. The settlement was announced on Monday, 2 November, by the plaintiffs' lawyers, and neither the amount nor the other terms have been made public. The case had been set for opening statements two days later in Los Angeles, after jury selection began the previous week. Snap was the only defendant left, because the two plaintiffs had already reached settlements with Meta, TikTok and YouTube. According to the plaintiffs, they began using YouTube at age 3 and other social platforms at about age 9, and they blamed autoplay and infinite scrolling for compulsive habits.

“The Parties are pleased to have been able to resolve this matter in an amicable manner.”

Snap said it had built safeguards, launched safety tutorials and worked with experts, and that it would keep strengthening safety for its community.

Why the trial mattered

Evan Spiegel was expected to testify, which would have made this the first time the Snap chief executive took the stand in one of these cases. The trial would have been Snap's first in a broader wave of litigation over social media's effect on young users, and the company had already settled its other cases scheduled for trial. Thousands of lawsuits are pending against social media companies in federal and state courts, alleging the platforms knowingly hooked young users and fueled a youth mental health crisis. Emily Jeffcott, an attorney for K.D.B., said the legal team was proud of the outcome reached so far.

“We are proud to have achieved justice for our bellwether clients so far, including K.D.B. and S.J.”

The verdict and the Meta deal

Earlier, in March, a Los Angeles jury ruled against Meta and YouTube and ordered them to pay $6 million to a 20-year-old woman who said the apps had harmed her as a child. Snap and TikTok had settled before that trial. Meta, which has appealed that verdict, settled the Los Angeles case on Friday, 30 October, which left Snap as the last defendant. BFMTV reports that Meta also reached an agreement in August with almost all US states worth more than $18 billion, including new limits for teens on Instagram and Facebook. Since the March verdict, Meta has not let a jury decide these cases.

What comes next

Bloomberg reported, citing the plaintiffs' attorneys, that Snap was still finalizing the settlement. Meta and Snap both continue to face numerous other lawsuits over social media addiction and related safety claims. The next bellwether dates are reported differently by two outlets: The Verge says the next bellwether cases are scheduled for March 2027, while BFMTV reports a trial brought by school districts set for February 2027 in federal court in Oakland, near San Francisco.