Washington Pursues Meta for Violating Consumer Protection Act

COUNT LIII: UNFAIR ACTS OR PRACTICES BY META IN VIOLATION OF THE WASHINGTON CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT, WASH. REV. CODE § 19.86.020

1163. Washington realleges and incorporates herein by reference each of the allegations contained in the preceding paragraph 1 through 850 as though fully alleged in this cause of action.

1164. Meta engaged in unfair acts or practices affecting Washington consumers, including young users, parents of young users, and Meta advertisers, and in violation of Wash. Rev. Code. § 19.86.020 by (a) encouraging or facilitating young users’ and children’s compulsive and unhealthy use of and addiction to Meta’s Social Media Platforms; (b) downplaying, minimizing, denying, or otherwise ignoring instances of harm suffered by young users and children on Meta’s Social Media Platforms; (c) downplaying, minimizing, denying, or otherwise ignoring the association between harms and the use of Meta’s Social Media Platforms by young users and children; (d) targeting its Social Media Platforms to young users and children while designing its Social Media Platforms to include features psychologically and physically harmful to young users and children—including Meta-designed and -deployed features known to promote compulsive, prolonged, and unhealthy use; (e) adopting design choices that have the capacity to harm young users, including infinite scroll, ephemeral content features, autoplay, and disruptive alerts; (f) designing, developing, and/or deploying disruptive audiovisual and vibration notifications and alerts and ephemeral features to induce young users and children to spend more time using the Social Media Platforms; and (g) algorithmically exploiting “variable reinforcement schedules,” inducing young users and children to over-engage with Meta’s products.

1165. Meta’s conduct as described herein occurred in trade or commerce within the meaning of the Washington Consumer Protection Act, Wash. Rev. Code. § 19.86.010(2), directly or indirectly affecting the people of the State of Washington.

1166. Meta’s unfair acts or practices affected the public interest in that they impacted numerous Washington consumers and other consumers.

1167. Meta’s unfair acts or practices are likely to continue without relief from this Court.

1168. Based on the above unfair acts or practices, the State of Washington is entitled to relief under the Washington Consumer Protection Act including injunctive relief and restitution pursuant to Wash. Rev. Code. § 19.86.080, civil penalties pursuant to Wash. Rev. Code. § 19.86.140 for each and every violation of Wash. Rev. Code. § 19.86.020, and reimbursement of the costs of this action, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, pursuant to Wash. Rev. Code. § 19.86.080.