Vermont’s Meta Lawsuit Heads Back to Chittenden County After Supreme Court Refuses Appeal
Meta researchers identified Vermont as a unique market — noting that at certain times more teens and young adults in Vermont used Instagram per capita than in any other state.
The U.S. Supreme Court declined Tuesday to hear Meta Platforms’ appeal of a Vermont Supreme Court ruling, allowing Attorney General Charity Clark’s lawsuit accusing the company of designing Instagram to addict Vermont teens to proceed in Chittenden Superior Court.
The denial in Meta Platforms, Inc. v. Vermont (No. 25-909) ends Meta’s effort to obtain U.S. Supreme Court review of a jurisdictional fight that began when Meta moved to dismiss the case on the grounds that Vermont courts lacked personal jurisdiction over it. The state’s complaint, filed in October 2023 and unsealed that December, alleges Meta violated the Vermont Consumer Protection Act by designing Instagram to be compulsively engaging for teen users and by misleading consumers about the platform’s alleged mental health risks.
Meta argued in its January 26 cert petition that the Vermont Supreme Court’s ruling — which Meta characterized as relying on its “business model” — could not be reconciled with U.S. Supreme Court precedent on personal jurisdiction. The state did not allege that Instagram was designed in Vermont, Meta argued, nor that any of the alleged misrepresentations were made in Vermont. Meta also argued that its general revenue model — selling targeted advertising to Vermont businesses — was too disconnected from the state’s underlying product-design claims to qualify as a claim-related contact with the forum. The tech trade association NetChoice filed an amicus brief in support of Meta on March 20, 2026.
The Vermont Supreme Court’s August 29, 2025 decision (2025 VT 51) rejected Meta’s framing. “A company that reaches out and purposefully avails itself of a forum state’s market for its own economic gain can expect to be haled into court in that jurisdiction to account for its conduct related to those business activities,” the court wrote. The unanimous opinion pointed to Meta’s contracts with Vermont users, its targeted advertising sales to Vermont businesses, and its research on Vermont teen engagement as sufficient contacts to establish jurisdiction.
The case now returns to Chittenden Superior Court (23-CV-4453), where discovery is the expected next major phase. The state can seek discovery from Meta and ask the court to compel production over any objections, subject to ordinary case-management rules. The unsealed 2023 complaint already alleges, based on the AG’s pre-suit investigation, that Meta researchers identified Vermont as a unique market — noting that at certain times more teens and young adults in Vermont used Instagram per capita than in any other state — and that the company studied engagement patterns in what its researchers called Vermont’s “top ten cities.” Compass Vermont previously reported on the appeal in March.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision not to review the Vermont ruling may also affect the Attorney General’s parallel case against TikTok (24-CV-03984). In March 2025, Washington Unit Judge Timothy B. Tomasi stayed that case pending the outcome of the Meta appeal, concluding that the Vermont Supreme Court’s decision was “highly likely, one way or another, to establish critical guideposts that the Court will follow in this case.” With the Meta appeal now resolved, the state — which had opposed the stay — is positioned to move for it to be lifted.
The Vermont case is one of dozens of state and federal actions filed nationwide accusing social media companies of harming young users. Vermont was part of a 42-state coordinated investigation of Meta before states split their filings in October 2023, with 33 states joining a federal lawsuit in the Northern District of California and other states, including Vermont, filing separate actions in state court.