Latest / The Jon and Marc Podcast / How a $6M Bellwether Verdict Changes the Social Media Addiction Landscape

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How a $6M Bellwether Verdict Changes the Social Media Addiction Landscape · The Jon and Marc Podcast

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  We have late breaking news. It is now Thursday morning.
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  We recorded tour talk on Monday morning and we usually drop it
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  on Thursday because we have a little bit of editing to do.
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  But this is. Such breaking.
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  News that we wanted to make sure that we got it to you this week
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  as quick as we possibly can late yesterday afternoon in Los.
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  Angeles. The Lanier Law Firm social media
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  victims. Law Center.
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  Got a verdict back in the social media addiction trial.
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  We had a win for the plaintiffs. The jury came back.
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  And they awarded $6 million. To the.
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  Plaintiff. For this bellwether trial.
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  What does that actually mean and how?
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  Does it? Break down, well we had
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  $3,000,000 in. Compensatory damages. $3,000,000
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  in punitive damages. The jury found that Meadow was
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  70% liable and Google or YouTube was 30% liable.
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  We had $3,000,000 in. Compensatory 3. $1,000,000 in
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  punitive for a $6 million award for the plaintiff in this case.
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  This is a huge, huge win because we got both the.
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  Compensatory damages. And.
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  We got. The punitive damages this.
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  Will change the. Way that platforms are designed
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  in the future to prevent hopefully the damages that are
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  being done to the children that are getting addicted.
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  And. Having mental health issues with
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  these platforms? It is the first of hopefully
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  many. Wins for the plaintiffs in the
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  social media addiction trials, both in state court and in the
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  MDL. And it was great to see Matt
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  Bourbon, Mark Lanier walk out of the courthouse with a huge win.
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  And we will see what that means. It's going to be all over
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  mainstream news today. I saw it start hitting the wire
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  last night. We'll hear what Mark Lanier has
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  to say. We'll hear.
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  What Matt Bergman has to say. I'm sure they're going to be all
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  over the press. If you missed it, make sure you
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  watch my interview with Matt Bergman That we did, I believe.
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  Was the first or the second day of the trial right?
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  Before Adam Mossiri testified. You can click that link here.
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  And jump right to that episode and watch my sit.
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  Down with him was. About an.
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  Hour discussion of of what he thought was going to happen in
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  the trial and what a win would mean for the plaintiffs.
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  In the future of what? Social media.
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  Will be in the world. On next week's Tor Talk, we're
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  going to talk. In.
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  Detail. About what this verdict actually
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  means. We'll get all the details as
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  they're coming out. In the press today, tomorrow,
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  over the weekend, when we record Tor talk next week, we will be
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  prepared. To discuss what this actually
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  means for this litigation, we will see you then.
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  Welcome to Tor talk. I am Mark Ryu and joined as
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  always by John Robinson and Joe Fantini.
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  We have an exciting show for you today.
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  We're previewing the JPML hearing on Dupixent, tracking
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  the explosive growth of the Depo Rivera MDL, and breaking down a
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  new study on the weight loss drugs and vision loss.
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  There's a lot to cover. Let's get into it.
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  Back to the pod. All right, moving on to our
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  second topic, the Second Judicial Panel of Multi District
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  Litigation of 2026 is later this week with one key case involving
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  the drug Dupixent on the agenda. What is this medication used for
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  and why are plaintiffs seeking centralization like you
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  mentioned there? Mark, we have the judicial panel
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  multi district litigation meeting at the end of March.
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  The one main case that everybody's focusing on is this
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  medication that surprisingly somehow has multiple
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  applications. It's been around for almost
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  about 10 years now and we're seeing that it's being used a
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  lot to treat eczema is kind of the most common application
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  we're seeing right now. We're alleging that this
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  medication can either cause or enhances a rare type of cancer
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  AT cell type of cancer that we saw a pop up some in of the
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  roundup cases and there's about 20 cases that are pending.
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  So that gets us over that numerosity requirement.
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  We have these commonality of facts and injuries with the same
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  defendants of the plaintiffs use the same medication.
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  They're all over the country. The defendants obviously don't
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  want it centralized, but I think we'll end up having an MDL form
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  should be the beginning of April when we hear about this one.
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  Right now, indications are that this isn't going to be a giant
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  mass tort. I think we'll have a couple
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  thousand, maybe we can get the 5000 cases total, but it'll be
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  exciting to have a new MDL formed in a couple weeks here.
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  A lot of the momentum here is. Being pushed.
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  By 11 Papantonio and the. MTNP crew that did a webinar
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  last week. I know a lot of attorneys are
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  asking questions right now. About that.
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  Particular litigation and I expect that we're going to learn
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  more obviously at the JPML, but also at MTNP as we know 11,
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  Papantonio already investigating it and some other firms as well.
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  Yeah, they're definitely in on it.
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  So it's Beasley, Allen, kind of all the firms you'd expect
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  moving forward with this. Anapol Weiss, I know they're in
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  on it as well. So seems like it's a pretty
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  strong case based on the science, very rare signature
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  injury, which we like in the mass torts instead of focusing
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  on 20 cancers like we did in the beginning of Zantac.
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  So it seems like the science is there, seems like the injuries
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  are there deserving clients. Hopefully we'll get it
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  centralized and maybe even the docket can move fast like we've
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  seen in some of these other mass torts.
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  Who knows? Coming back to Depo Provera,
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  which we've. Been talking about for the past
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  few weeks. It's obviously one of the
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  busiest and most active mess towards right now we saw.
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  Over 500 new cases filed. In the MDL.
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  Last week alone, where do we stand in terms of of the two
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  current biggest issues that we're facing, the preemption and
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  the expert discovery? Yeah, those are the biggest
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  issues pretty much in any litigation.
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  But we were talking couple weeks back how there was a huge filing
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  increase with Depo. There was 1000 cases in a month
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  and now we're seeing 501 week alone.
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  So the litigation is definitely picking up steam.
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  The judge has a December date for the initial trial.
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  We'll be able to see if that holds.
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  But the two pending issues really are the preemption.
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  The judge let us know that it's under advisement, it's fully
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  briefed. We're just waiting for a
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  decision. I think we're going to actually
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  get that sometime in April. It should be a slam dunk being
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  that the label got updated with the warning we said should have
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  been on there the whole time. Kind of defeats the defendants
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  argument there. And then the expert general
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  discovery is wrapping up, I believe, I believe the last day
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  for the general expert discovery was March 20th.
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  So we'll really be able to focus forward going on, get some
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  Dahlberg motions filed, get some hearings on that, see what comes
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  in and what doesn't. But momentum drill building,
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  this is actually been a rocket docket and no mass tort has ever
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  moved this fast. So hopefully we can learn a lot
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  from this and use it as an outline for the future mass
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  torts. But we're getting the numbers up
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  there, and we'll have some more positive momentum the next
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  couple months. Moving on to our next topic,
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  NAION cases are heating up, and a new study on this issue
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  appears to indicate that medication made-up of
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  semaglutide face higher risk of developing this terrible
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  disease. What exactly did this breaking
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  study show? Yes.
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  So this is an injury that kind of came on to our radar towards
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  the end of 2025. We ended up getting multi county
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  litigation centralized in New Jersey and state court level.
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  And then also in the MDL, we have this injury that's running
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  parallel to the gastric injuries.
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  And So what we've really been trying to figure out is, you
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  know, what's the doses that's associated with this injury is a
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  specific type of this GLP one that causes these injuries.
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  And this new study you just mentioned, Mark, it's showing
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  that there's more than a twice increased likelihood of
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  developing this stroke of the eyes, what we're calling it,
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  when you're using Ozempic or Wigobi.
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  So it looks like those two medications are really linked to
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  this specific eye injury. It seems to have to do with
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  their chemical build up and what they're made of.
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  So that's something we're going to be paying attention to.
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  But it looks like this dock is going to be filled with those
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  ZEM, PIC and Mcgovy medication cases as opposed to some of the
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  other ones out there looking. At these.
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  Weight loss. Drugs which people are taking to
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  help reduce. Their weight.
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  Yeah, some of them are just exceptionally.
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  Some people really need. To lose the weight for health
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  reasons and then to have. This completely out of left.
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  Field condition causing blindness in some some cases.
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  It's rare, but it is happening, and there it looks like there's
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  a. A pattern that's starting to
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  emerge here so. Two different.
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  Directions. Still going on this weight loss
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  litigation both of the eye injuries and with the
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  gastrointestinal injuries. Yeah, it's like you're saying,
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  you use the medication to lose a couple pounds, maybe get some of
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  your blood pressure, diabetes under control.
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  Nobody would trade that for losing their vision, right?
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  You, you need your vision with everything you do.
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  There was any warning at all that this could happen.
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  Nobody would take the medication.
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  That's why they don't have the warning on there.
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  And now it's good that we're finally, you know, learning
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  about it, seeing what the cause is.
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  Hopefully, we can prevent the future cases.
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  Another exciting week in mass torts.
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  Well, everyone, make sure you like and subscribe to the
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  channel. Thank you again Joe and John and
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  we'll see everyone in next week episode.
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  Play that music.