Meta’s effort to keep Vermont’s attorney general out of its business just hit a major snag. The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to step in on the company’s bid to block a state lawsuit that claims Instagram was deliberately engineered to hook teenagers and damage their mental health. The justices did not weigh in on whether those claims are true, but they removed a procedural shield Meta hoped would keep the case out of a Vermont courtroom.
High court sits this one out
The justices turned away Meta’s petition to review a Vermont Supreme Court decision that said the state can assert jurisdiction over the social media giant, leaving Attorney General Charity Clark’s consumer-protection claims in place, according to Reuters. Meta had argued that letting the case proceed in Vermont would offend its due-process rights and open the door to similar suits in every state where its platforms are used.
What Vermont says Instagram did
Clark filed the case in October 2023 under Vermont’s consumer-protection law, alleging that Instagram’s core design features tap into teenagers’ neurological and psychological vulnerabilities to fuel compulsive use and drive up ad revenue. The complaint seeks damages and court-ordered changes to the product and accuses Meta of misleading young users and their parents about Instagram’s safety, as detailed by VTDigger.
One front in a nationwide legal blitz
Vermont’s suit is just one piece of a broader legal offensive that ramped up in 2023, when dozens of state attorneys general filed coordinated enforcement actions and lawsuits accusing Meta of harming children and teenagers through its products. That multistate push, which includes cases in both state and federal courts across the country, has been chronicled by The Associated Press.
Recent rulings tilt against Meta
The Vermont case moves forward as Meta contends with a series of courtroom setbacks. In March, a Santa Fe jury ordered the company to pay $375 million after finding it violated New Mexico law in a child-safety case, according to the Los Angeles Times. A separate Los Angeles jury issued a multimillion-dollar verdict to a plaintiff who said she became addicted to social media platforms including Instagram, as reported by CBS News. And in Massachusetts, the state’s highest court has allowed its own youth-addiction case to move ahead, with that decision described as having greenlit a Meta showdown over addicted teens.
Meta’s jurisdiction fight falls flat
In its Supreme Court petition, Meta asked the justices to decide whether a plaintiff can establish personal jurisdiction over an out-of-state internet company based on a nationwide business model rather than specific conduct tied to the state that is suing. The filing stressed that Meta has no physical offices in Vermont and that the complaint does not claim Instagram’s design work occurred there. The full petition is available on the Supreme Court.
What’s next
With the Supreme Court choosing not to get involved, Vermont’s lawsuit now heads deeper into state court, where discovery is expected to ramp up and prosecutors could seek broad remedies, including injunctions or monetary damages tied to alleged consumer-protection violations. Meta is likely to keep pressing jurisdictional and other defenses as the case advances, and outcomes in related New Mexico and California trials are expected to influence how Vermont’s claims are litigated and negotiated, according to reporting by VTDigger.
