*by Fulvio Sarzana di S.Ippolito, Lawyer, Sarzana and Partners Law Firm. Sarzana Law Firm and Associates
Meta has reached settlements with 48 U.S. states, the District of Washington, Puerto Rico, and other U.S. territories. The bill: $17.6 billion for social media addiction damage related to Facebook and Instagram, more 459 million for privacy violations in the Cambridge Analytica case. A total of nearly $18 billion, payable over 10 years.
The agreement (reported by The Post) comes just days after the trial opened. Meta was facing up to $1.4 trillion according to his own defense calculations; the prosecution was seeking around $200 billion.
The charges: planning, not accident
The crux of the case isn't minors' use of social media. It's Meta's design choices.
Prosecutors allege that the company built Instagram and Facebook to generate social media addiction, knowing the psychological harm to minors and still prioritizing user growth. They also allege that Meta collected data on children under 13 without parental consent, in violation of COPPA, the federal U.S. Act on Children's Online Privacy.
The litigation tactic mirrors the one used in the 1990s against the tobacco industry: demonstrating that the company knew the risk and continued operating anyway.
What changes for users
The agreement imposes daily usage limits on Meta for teens, which can only be changed with parental permission. It blocks nighttime activity for minors and reduces notifications during school hours. It also adds stronger parental controls and stricter age verification.
However, it does not affect recommendation algorithms, the mechanism accused of fueling addiction. Adult users, exposed to the same mechanisms, are also excluded from the agreement.
The agreement does not involve an admission of guilt by Meta and still requires court approval.
Social media addiction: it's not an isolated case
In March 2026, a Los Angeles jury ordered Meta and Google to pay $6 million to a woman for an addiction she developed during childhood. A New Mexico court fined Meta $375 million in March and another $567 million in August for failing to provide information about the risks to minors.
The legal front against Meta, therefore, remains open in the United States even after the agreement with the 48 states.
And in Italy? The regulatory framework already exists.
Italy lacks a tool equivalent to the class action lawsuit filed by American state attorneys, but the regulatory framework for challenging the design of social media platforms already exists, and it's European before it's Italian.
The Digital Services Act It requires large platforms to assess systemic risks, including adverse effects on the mental health of minors (Article 34), and to implement specific mitigation measures (Article 35). The European Commission can fine infringements up to 61% of the annual global turnover.
Regarding privacy, Article 2-quinquies of the Privacy Code establishes 14 as the minimum age for consenting to information society services. Below that age, the consent of the person exercising parental responsibility is required. The Italian Data Protection Authority (Garante) can impose fines for violations of up to 41% of global turnover, according to Article 83 of the GDPR.
The Caivano Decree (DL 123/2023) has already introduced age verification requirements for pornographic sites, via SPID or CIE. The debate about extending this to social media has been ongoing for some time, and an agreement like the American one provides new impetus.
Possible solutions for an Italian case
An action similar to the one in the United States would require different, but not nonexistent, tools in Italy. The class action procedure under Article 840-bis of the Italian Code of Civil Procedure, reformed in 2021, allows an organization or association to act on behalf of a class of consumers harmed by the same conduct.
The Italian Data Protection Authority already fined TikTok in 2021, following the death of a 10-year-old girl in Palermo, citing deficiencies in age verification. The same power will apply to Meta if evidence emerges of data collection from minors under 14 without valid consent.
There then remains the option of ordinary civil liability, art. 2043 of the Civil Code, for those who demonstrate concrete damage linked to pathological use of the platform and specific design choices, not just to the use of the service.
The American settlement doesn't automatically lead to an Italian lawsuit. But it sets an important factual precedent: a company as powerful as Meta has agreed to pay $18 billion rather than submit internal evidence regarding the design of its platforms to a jury. That evidence, if it were to emerge in the European litigation, would alter the risk assessment for anyone judging the platforms' liability for minors' social media addiction.
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