A California jury on Wednesday found that Meta and Google were to blame for the depression and anxiety of a woman who compulsively used social media as a small child, awarding her $3 million in a rare verdict holding Silicon Valley accountable for its role in fueling a youth mental health crisis.
The jurors concluded that Meta and Google should pay the woman $3 million in compensatory damages, with Meta on the hook for 70% of that amount.
The jury also decided that Meta and Google’s actions should trigger punitive damages, which means there will be a separate phase of the trial where the jury will decide what amount of damages are appropriate to punish the multi-trillion-dollar companies for their conduct.
Not sure I agree with that. I’ll take an unexpected five bucks because of Red Bull’s false advertising that some ingredient doesn’t have literal energy (calories) to it. I wouldn’t start my own lawsuit over it, which may or may not be as successful. More importantly, every class action notice I’ve ever gotten had instructions to opt out and initiate my own legal action if I so choose. Also, if we’re talking about a class that includes thousands/millions of people, there are only so many lawyers involved in whatever specialty.
Tl;dr class actions penalize companies on behalf of those who wouldn’t realistically file their own lawsuit while still allowing those who would.