A $1.4 Trillion Lawsuit Against Meta: Could the Company Be Forced to "Hand Over the Keys"
It's no secret that Meta is one of the wealthiest companies in the world. Last year it brought in nearly $201 billion in revenue, and by the end of June this year its cash and marketable securities topped $90 billion.
Now, a federal lawsuit that opened in Oakland, California is testing what it would actually take to land a financial blow on a company of that size. California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey are accusing Meta of misleading the public about the dangers its platforms pose to young people, and of building features that excessively hook children and teens on Instagram and Facebook. The four states are the first to go to trial on behalf of a coalition of 29 state attorneys general who sued the company back in 2023.
Meta is fighting other child-safety lawsuits across the country, but this one carries a distinct risk — because of who's bringing it. Unlike ordinary plaintiffs, state attorneys general have standing to sue under statutes including the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), and they can seek remedies for harm potentially inflicted on millions of people.
"What's at stake in this case could be bigger, because the damages are calculated based on harm to millions of people," Eric Goldman, co-director of Santa Clara University's High Tech Law Institute, told Fortune. He said the specific claims the attorneys general are pursuing could trigger additional remedies as well — which helps explain the almost unimaginable figure hanging over the trial: $1.4 trillion.
Meta itself has said that under the theory the states are advancing, potential penalties could approach a level comparable to the company's own market value. "That's just a mind-boggling number, frankly," Goldman said. In the worst-case scenario, he said, the potential damages Meta has described could effectively transfer the value held by the company's shareholders to the public — which, in his words, sounds a lot like forcing Meta to "hand over the keys and walk away."
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