Why Meta’s settlement is a commercial win for the social media giant

Why Meta’s settlement is a commercial win for the social media giant

Meta will pay $23 billion after a landmark court battle this week over teen addiction. An RMIT expert says Meta’s settlement mirrors the defensive strategies used by big tobacco in the late 1990s to protect core business models and neutralise existential regulatory threats.

Professor Shelley Marshall, Deputy Dean, School of Law: 

"While Meta’s multi-state settlement is a landmark moment in the fight against addictive technologies, negotiated settlements are vastly more advantageous to Big Tech than statutory bans like Australia’s under-16 social media laws. 

"Australia now prohibits platforms from allowing minors under 16 to hold accounts. By contrast, the US settlement relies on financial penalties and behavioural guardrails – such as daily usage prompts and default break reminders.  

"This keeps adolescents inside Meta’s ecosystem, maintaining brand habituation, and long-term customer usage. 

"In the 1990s, tobacco companies paid multi-billion dollar payouts because it protected what mattered: keeping products on shelves. What they fought hardest were the real business killers — advertising bans, display restrictions, and plain packaging. 

"For platforms of Meta's scale, multi-year financial settlements and compliance requirements represent manageable operational costs. Outright statutory prohibitions that eliminate underage market access pose the true threat to the business model."

Shelley Marshall is Deputy Dean (Research and Innovation) at the School of Law at RMIT University. Her work spans corporate accountability, business and human rights and labour law.

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General media enquiries: RMIT External Affairs and Media, 0439 704 077 or news@rmit.edu.au

28 August 2026

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