Meta will pay 18 billion dollars over child-safety claims as KKR takes a 250 million dollar merger penalty
Meta agreed to pay up to 18 billion dollars over 10 years to settle a 29-state child-safety lawsuit, including a default two-hour daily teen usage limit. Separately, KKR will pay 250 million dollars, the largest penalty under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act, for failing to file required merger notices in at least 16 transactions.
Economics & Markets··Midday
Child-safety settlement terms
Meta agreed to pay up to 18 billion dollars over 10 years to settle a lawsuit brought by 29 US states alleging that Instagram and Facebook were designed to addict children. Under the settlement, 12.7 billion dollars is earmarked for youth online-safety initiatives; a further 5.4 billion dollars is contingent on YouTube and TikTok adopting comparable protections. The company also accepted platform changes including a default two-hour daily teen usage limit and a midnight-to-6 a.m. access block, but it does not admit wrongdoing.[1]
Record merger-notice fine
The US Justice Department settled allegations that private-equity firm KKR violated federal premerger notification law in at least 16 transactions. KKR agreed to pay 250 million dollars, the largest civil penalty ever assessed under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act. The department said KKR had altered required filing documents in at least 8 transactions, failed to file at all in 2, and systematically omitted required documents in 10 others.[2]
Enforcement context
The states in the Meta case alleged that the company knowingly collected children's data without parental consent. The KKR penalty, filed with the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, was described by an associate attorney general as more than 20 times any prior Hart-Scott-Rodino fine obtained by the department, signaling what officials called vigorous enforcement of the act.[1], [2]
