Social Media Lawsuit in Italy Against Meta and TikTok

An Italian parents’ association and a group of families have filed a class action in Italy against Meta and TikTok, asking the Milan Business Court to force Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok to verify users’ ages, strip out design features the plaintiffs call addictive, and carry health warnings similar to those on cigarette packages. The suit was filed in July 2025 and had its first hearing in May 2026. Lawyers for the plaintiffs describe it as the first European class action aimed at the design of social media platforms and their effects on children.¹

Who Brought the Case

The lead plaintiff is the Movimento Italiano Genitori (MOIGE), a national parents’ association that has worked on child protection for more than 25 years. Its director general, Antonio Affinita, called the lawsuit “an urgent and necessary legal step,” arguing that platforms have failed to protect children and have instead harmed them with algorithms that “create distress and dependency.”²

MOIGE is joined by a group of families and represented by the Turin firm Ambrosio & Commodo, with attorneys Renato Ambrosio, Stefano Commodo, Stefano Bertone, and Fabrizio Lala. The team spent two years preparing the case alongside computer forensics specialists and neuropsychiatrists. “It’s too easy for children to bypass the age ban,” Ambrosio said. “This action is about stopping conduct that is harmful to a large number of individuals.”¹

The plaintiffs estimate that of roughly 90 million Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok accounts in Italy, about 3.5 million belong to children between 7 and 14 who are on the platforms in violation of existing age rules.³

What the Lawsuit Alleges

The complaint rests on three linked claims: that the platforms do not meaningfully verify user ages, that their design is engineered to create dependency, and that they conceal the health risks of heavy use from families.

Age Verification

Italian and EU law prohibit children under 14 from registering for social media without parental consent. The plaintiffs say current checks amount to a self-reported birthdate that any child can bypass, and ask the court to order Meta and TikTok to deploy “genuine, certified” age verification.⁴

Addictive Design

The lawsuit targets specific features the plaintiffs label “persuasive technology”: infinite scrolling, algorithmic content recommendations tuned to each user, and variable reinforcement through unpredictable notifications and likes. The complaint compares these mechanics to those of slot machines and argues they trigger dopamine responses that exploit still-developing brains.³

The plaintiffs also challenge the platforms’ data practices, alleging that the companies build detailed behavioral and personality profiles of users, including minors, by tracking not just what content they view but how long they linger on each post. Those profiles, the complaint says, feed hyper-personalized content that deepens dependency and powers targeted advertising. A digital forensics report by Dr. Paolo Dal Checco, filed with the court, documents the duration-level tracking.³

Health Harms

The families cite eating disorders, sleep deprivation, depression, suicidal thoughts, attention deficits, increased impulsivity, body image problems, and declining academic performance. Their lawyers argue that heavy social media use during adolescence can cause “permanent biological damage” to the prefrontal cortex, which does not fully mature until around age 25. A scientific opinion by neuropsychiatrist Tonino Cantelmi and clinical psychologist Marta Cacciotti, attached to the filings, describes the platforms as “ecosystems” that interfere with brain maturation through gambling-like reward patterns.⁵

What the Plaintiffs Are Asking For

The case is structured in two phases. The current phase seeks an injunction ordering Meta and TikTok to:

Implement robust, certified age verification that blocks under-14 users from registering.
Remove infinite scrolling, engagement-maximizing algorithmic manipulation, and other features the plaintiffs characterize as dependency-creating.
Display health warnings about excessive use “with the same clarity, visibility, and unequivocality as warnings about the risks of smoking.”³

A second phase, still being prepared, would be a separate class action seeking financial compensation for individual families whose children have documented harm. Ambrosio & Commodo has opened a website, classactionsocial.it, to collect reports from families interested in joining the damages claim. Each case will be assessed individually, and participation will require medical documentation of neuropsychiatric harm.³

The Legal Basis

The injunction phase uses Article 840-sexiesdecies of the Italian Code of Civil Procedure, which allows organizations to seek court orders against conduct that harms a large number of people. This tool is part of a class action reform that took effect in May 2021 and replaced an older system limited to consumer disputes.⁶

Italy’s class action system differs from the American model: affected individuals must actively opt in by filing formal electronic statements during designated windows, rather than being automatically included unless they opt out.⁷

The plaintiffs also invoke European law: the Digital Services Act, which regulates platform liability and protection of minors; the 2024 update to the EU Directive on liability for defective products, which extends product liability to software and AI systems; and the European General Product Safety Regulation.⁶

How Meta and TikTok Have Responded

At the first hearing in May 2026, lawyers for both companies challenged the Milan Business Court’s jurisdiction to hear the case.⁸ They also contested new documents filed by MOIGE’s legal team that allegedly showed internal knowledge of how the platforms’ design affected younger users.

Meta has said publicly that it “strongly rejects” the allegations and points to its “Teen Accounts” protections as evidence of its commitment to child safety.⁶ TikTok did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters when the lawsuit was filed.¹

MOIGE’s attorneys argued that Italian courts have full jurisdiction, framed the case as a public health matter, and asked the court to fast-track the proceedings.⁹

Where the Case Stands

The Milan Business Court held its first hearing on May 15, 2026. A final hearing has been scheduled for November 19, 2026, according to one source tracking the proceeding.¹⁰ No substantive ruling has been issued. The court’s immediate task is to resolve the jurisdictional challenge before the case can move to the merits, and it was expected to set a calendar for further proceedings in the weeks after the May hearing.⁸

The injunction phase is what is currently before the court. Families seeking individual damages would participate in the separate second-phase action still being prepared, not the proceeding now underway.

Why This Case Matters Beyond Italy

The lawsuit lands in the middle of a European push to tighten rules on how platforms treat minors. The European Commission opened formal proceedings against Meta in May 2024 to investigate whether Facebook and Instagram breach the Digital Services Act on protection of minors, focusing on addictive design, age verification, and default privacy settings. The Commission also used the DSA to force the withdrawal of the TikTok Lite app from the EU over its reward mechanisms.¹¹

The Commission is also developing a Digital Fairness Act targeting dark patterns, addictive design, manipulative personalization, and influencer marketing, with a formal proposal expected later in 2026. If adopted, it would set proactive design requirements, including default-off attention-seeking features and mandatory time-limit warnings.¹² The Italian plaintiffs cite the anticipated law as further support for their position.⁶

If the Milan court accepts jurisdiction and ultimately rules for the plaintiffs, the decision could shape how the Digital Services Act and the updated product liability directive apply to the core design of social media platforms, not only to how they moderate content.

1
Reuters. Italian Families Target Facebook, Instagram, TikTok Over Child Safety
2
MOIGE. Difendiamo I Nostri Figli Dai Social Con La Forza Della Legge
3
Ambrosio & Commodo. Difendiamo I Nostri Figli Dai Social – Class Action Contro Facebook Instagram TikTok
4
L’Unione Sarda. Banning Social Media for Under-14s – The First Italian Class Action Lawsuit Against Meta and TikTok
5
Toninocantelmi.it. Social Sotto Processo – Il Parere Scientifico Sui Rischi Dei Social Per Adolescenti E Preadolescenti
6
StartupBusiness. Meta and TikTok – Europes First Class Action Lawsuit to Protect Minors Takes Place in Milan
7
The Italian Law Journal. Italian Class Actions Reform
8
CADE Project. Italian Court Opens First Hearing in Lawsuit Against Meta and TikTok Over Minors Social Media Use
9
AOL. Italy Parents Group Faces Meta
10
Legance. Privacy Class Actions Against Major Online Platforms Gain Traction in Italy
11
European Parliament. Protection of Minors in the Digital Environment
12
European Parliament. Digital Fairness Act