Snap has settled what would have been another landmark trial over the alleged harms of social media, lawyers for the plaintiffs said Monday, just days after Meta reached its own settlement and two days before opening statements were due to begin in a Los Angeles courtroom.
The case was to be the latest in a series of bellwether, or test, trials whose outcomes are expected to guide the resolution of hundreds of similar lawsuits across the United States.
"We are proud to have achieved justice for our bellwether clients so far, including K.D.B. and S.J.," the lawyers said in a statement, referring to the plaintiffs, who are identified only by their initials.
"Our ultimate goal is to hold these social media companies accountable for how their actions have impacted millions of children across the country, and these settlements allow us to keep building toward that goal."
Snap, the maker of Snapchat, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Meta confirmed a settlement with KDB on Friday, after previously settling with SJ, which left Snap as the sole defendant in the case which consolidated claims from two lawsuits.
Sources close to Meta told AFP the company decided to settle for business reasons.
TikTok and YouTube were also named as defendants in the case, but both had already reached settlements, as well, their lawyers said.
"We believe the evidence will support that we have put our community first, and that these allegations fundamentally misrepresent the plaintiffs' experiences on Snapchat and how our platform was designed," a Snap spokesperson said in a statement last week.
Lawyers for SJ and KDB were expected to argue that their clients were exposed to "addictive and problematic" social media apps when they started using them at ages 13 and 15, respectively, according to court documents.
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