⚖️ An interesting problem is brewing around Meta $META.
A court case is starting in California where 29 US states accuse Meta of deliberately designing Facebook and Instagram to be as addictive as possible for children and teens. Meta denies the allegations, but the issue is how big the whole dispute could be.
💰 There is potentially huge money at stake. Four states leading the case previously estimated possible penalties of up to $1.4 trillion. But I'd take that figure with a big grain of salt; it's an extreme demand, not a fine that Meta has already received. The company also calls it completely unreasonable.
For me, the second part of the dispute is perhaps even more interesting. The states don't just want money, but also changes to how Instagram and Facebook work, which would limit some features considered addictive. And that could affect the business model itself.
Meta has already shown it can withstand huge regulatory fines, but here it may be more important whether the court interferes with how its apps work at all.
Do you hold META shares in your portfolio? And when investing in Big Tech, do you consider similar regulatory risks, or do you take them more as part of the game?
