Florida AG Unable to Shift Meta Child Privacy Case to Home Turf

Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody (R) failed to shift most of her lawsuit alleging Meta Platforms Inc. violated child privacy law back to a Florida federal district court.

Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers of Oakland, Calif., who is overseeing a consolidated multidistrict litigation against social media giants, ruled Tuesday that the US District Court for the Middle District of Florida doesn’t have jurisdiction to hear the bulk of the Florida AG’s case.

Florida’s lawsuit was filed in that court last fall, the same day that a multi-state coalition of over 30 AGs filed a nearly identical joint suit against Meta before Rogers, who sits on the US District Court for the Northern District of California. Both lawsuits claim Meta’s Facebook and Instagram platforms cause addiction and mental health harms to children and violate the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.

Rogers is overseeing a multidistrict litigation consolidating all cases filed nationwide that relate to social media addiction. That includes hundreds of private civil suits from parents of children injured by social media, school districts claiming social media disrupts learning, and the state AG lawsuits.

Moody’s lawsuit was consolidated into the MDL before Rogers, and she ruled last month that the multi-state AGs and Florida lawsuits can largely proceed on the merits. Florida’s AG sought to have it’s case returned to her home state for trial.

Rogers’ Tuesday ruling said the Middle District of Florida doesn’t have jurisdiction over the Florida case because COPPA’s jurisdiction requirements generally require lawsuits to be filed where the defendant is located.

She rejected the AG’s argument that the Florida court had jurisdiction because Meta Payments Inc., a subsidiary that oversees payment processing and data analytics, is incorporated in Florida.

Rogers said the Florida AG will have to refile in an appropriate jurisdiction, which would at least include the Northern District of California where Meta is located.

The judge did find that the Middle District of Florida did have jurisdiction to hear the state’s claim that Meta violated the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, potentially resulting in that claim being filed separately from the remainder of Moody’s suit.

Covington & Burling LLP represents Meta.

The case is In Re: Social Media Adolescent Addiction/Pers. Inj. Products Liab. Litigation, N.D. Cal., No. 4:22-md-03047, 11/12/24.