A Florida teenager has withdrawn his lawsuit against Meta Platforms just days before a scheduled jury trial in Los Angeles, ending a closely watched bellwether case over social media’s alleged harms to minors. The 15-year-old, identified as R.K.C., had previously reached confidential settlements with YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat, leaving Meta as the sole remaining defendant. His legal team announced the decision on Wednesday, citing the overall successful outcome of the litigation and the plaintiff’s desire to avoid a gruelling weeks-long trial and focus on his recovery.

The plaintiff’s attorneys, Emily Jeffcott and Rahul Ravipudi, stated that R.K.C. entered the process to hold social media companies accountable and push for changes to protect young people, and that he had achieved that goal. A Meta spokesperson, however, said the teenager dropped the case without receiving any payment, and that the claims “never held up”. The company added that evidence showed the plaintiff spent only minutes per day on Facebook and Instagram and created most accounts after hiring a lawyer. Meta portrayed the withdrawal as a validation of its stance that it will not retreat from defending against what it calls baseless lawsuits.

The withdrawal means Meta avoids a second bellwether trial in the large-scale multi-district litigation before the Los Angeles Superior Court, where hundreds of similar lawsuits accuse social media companies of designing addictive products that harm children’s mental health. In March, a jury in the same court found Meta and Google liable for harming a 20-year-old woman and ordered them to pay $6 million in damages — a verdict both companies are appealing. Separately, a New Mexico court ordered Meta to pay $375 million for misleading consumers about child safety risks. According to US legal observers, the bellwether process is designed to test the strength of arguments and shape potential settlements across thousands of pending claims nationwide.

The broader legal offensive against Meta continues. More than 30 US states have filed a separate lawsuit with a potential trial set for August in Oakland, California, and another trial against Meta opened in Tennessee this week. Court records indicate the next bellwether trial in the Los Angeles litigation is scheduled for October. The plaintiff’s withdrawal, while closing one chapter, does not resolve the central legal question of platform liability for alleged addiction-related harms, which remains contested across multiple US jurisdictions.