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Tech & Innovation·August 26, 2026·1 min read

A law from 1634 is why Europeans cannot sue Big Tech together

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A 1634-era ban on champerty in Ireland quietly blunts the EU’s class-action tools against large tech firms, keeping most collective cases from ever forming. For operators, that means regulatory risk in Europe is still skewed toward administrative enforcement and one-off suits rather than US-style mass litigation — but that dependency on a single jurisdiction is a policy risk to watch.

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Filing: Meta agrees to pay up to $16.68B to settle 29 US states' claims that it designed Facebook and Instagram to addict children, misled customers, and more

States extracting up to $16.68 billion over claims of addictive design and misleading practices puts “engagement at all costs” into the same risk bucket as antitrust and data privacy. If your roadmap leans on dark patterns or opaque nudges—especially for younger users—assume those are now potential legal liabilities, not clever growth tactics.