Snap Inc, the parent company of Snapchat, has settled a lawsuit brought by two teenagers who alleged that the platform was designed to encourage compulsive use, contributing to depression, anxiety and eating disorders.
The agreement was reached during jury selection in Los Angeles, where the case had been scheduled to go to trial this week. The settlement terms have not been disclosed.
The plaintiffs' attorneys, John Morgan and Emily Jeffcott, said the agreement would allow them to continue pursuing accountability across the social media industry.
“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,” they said in a statement.
Snap did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two plaintiffs were identified in court documents as S.J., a 16-year-old girl from Illinois, and K.D.B., an 18-year-old from Mississippi.
They said they began using YouTube at around the age of three and other social media platforms, including Snapchat, at around nine. They blamed features such as autoplay and infinite scroll for encouraging compulsive use and contributing to their mental health problems.
The cases had been combined for trial and selected as bellwethers from a larger pool of lawsuits. The teenagers had previously reached settlements with Meta, TikTok and Google-owned YouTube.
Snap's settlement means the company has avoided what would have been its first trial in the wider litigation. Chief Executive Evan Spiegel had been expected to testify.
Plaintiffs' trial counsel Mark Lanier said families should not have to take their cases to a jury to address the issue.
“What these teenagers need is a permanent fix, real design changes that protect kids, not case-by-case patches. Until that happens, we will keep trying these cases,” he said in a statement.
Snap, Meta, TikTok and YouTube face thousands of lawsuits in federal and state courts.
The claims have been brought by individuals, school districts, municipalities and government entities, alleging that the companies knowingly designed platforms to encourage addictive use among children and contributed to a youth mental health crisis.
The companies have rejected the allegations, saying their platforms were not designed to addict young people and pointing to safety measures, parental controls and other resources introduced for families.
The first bellwether case to reach trial ended in March, when a Los Angeles jury found Meta and YouTube negligent and awarded a young woman $6 million in damages.
Both companies later sought a new trial, but a judge denied their requests in June. They have said they plan to appeal.
Other cases selected for early trials have been settled or withdrawn. A school district chosen as the first to go to trial also reached settlements with all four companies.
In August, Meta reached settlements worth up to $18 billion with nearly every U.S. state and territory to resolve lawsuits brought by attorneys general over the impact of its platforms on teenagers. The agreements included changes to Instagram and Facebook for younger users.
A portion of the proposed payments was conditional on states reaching similar settlements with Snap, TikTok and YouTube.
Snap shares rose more than 5 per cent on Monday following news of the settlement, according to market data cited by Bloomberg.
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