Supreme Court Lets Vermont's Instagram Addiction Lawsuit Against Meta Proceed

A state court fight Meta couldn't escape

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to hear Meta Platforms' appeal in a lawsuit brought by Vermont's attorney general, allowing the state to proceed with claims that Instagram was engineered to addict teenagers.reuters The justices issued the rejection in a brief, unexplained order — the standard form for cert denials — letting stand a 2025 Vermont Supreme Court decision that found the state had jurisdiction over the company.apnews Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark said the outcome affirms "that companies that choose to do business in Vermont, like Meta, can be held accountable when they harm kids."apnews

A jurisdictional gambit, rejected

Meta's appeal rested on a procedural argument: that Vermont's courts had no authority over the dispute because neither the company nor Instagram's design has specific ties to the state.apnews The company warned that letting the case proceed would violate its 14th Amendment due process rights by exposing it to similar suits in all 50 states.reuters Vermont's high court swatted that down last year, ruling that "a company that reaches out and purposefully avails itself of a forum state's market for its own economic gain can expect to be haled into court in that jurisdiction."independent Clark's 2023 complaint alleges Instagram was built to "exploit teenagers' developing brains" to drive compulsive use and ad revenue, and that Meta misled consumers about the app's safety.independent

Part of a 42-state coordinated assault

The Vermont case is one node in a coordinated enforcement push by 42 state attorneys general filing in both state and federal courts.reuters Internal Meta research surfaced in earlier reporting found 13.5% of teen girls said Instagram worsened suicidal thoughts and 17% said it worsened eating disorders.apnews Pew data shows nearly all U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 use a social platform, with roughly a third reporting "almost constant" use.apnews

Mounting courtroom losses

The denial extends an unbroken run of bad outcomes for Meta. In March, a New Mexico jury ordered the company to pay $375 million in civil penalties over child-safety claims, and a Los Angeles jury found Meta and Google negligent in a separate addiction case, awarding $6 million to a 20-year-old plaintiff.reuters Massachusetts' top court in April ruled Meta must face that state's attorney general, and last week the company settled a Kentucky school district's suit ahead of a bellwether trial.reuters Meta says it has introduced "dozens of tools" to support teens and has offered to work with states on youth-use standards.apnews With the jurisdictional escape hatch now closed, Vermont's case heads back to state court for discovery — and a roadmap other attorneys general are likely to copy.