Meta has agreed to pay up to $18bn to settle its blockbuster legal battle with US states over alleged failures of child protection and social media addiction, in one of the largest legal settlements ever made by an individual US company.
The parent of Facebook and Instagram has agreed to pay a $16.68bn settlement to 47 states, the District of Columbia and three US territories, according to filings on Wednesday. A separate $1bn settlement with Texas pushed the total to about $18bn.
The settlement came as the trial was just getting underway in a California courtroom this month. Meta had previously estimated that losing the case could have cost it hundreds of billions of dollars. The agreement does not include an admission of wrongdoing by Meta.