Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Netflix on Monday under the Texan law against deceptive business practices, alleging that Netflix billed itself as a “safe respite” from the surveillance and advertising that characterize other Big Tech platforms while engaging in similar data harvesting practices.
The lawsuit also claims that Netflix deceptively designs its platform to be addictive via features like autoplay, and references separate litigation in which juries found that Facebook and other social media platforms are similarly addictive by design.
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The complaint also includes statements by former chief executive Reed Hastings that committed to refrain from mining user data for advertising and other business purposes, while contrasting the company with other Big Tech businesses such as Facebook and Google.
“For years, Netflix’s leadership told the world it had ‘zero interest’ in advertising…and styled itself as the anti–Big Ad Tech refuge,” according to the complaint. “But once Netflix had stockpiled user data under those promises, it flipped the script and built an ads business that mirrors everything it once attacked.”
A Netflix spokesperson told Politico that the lawsuit gets facts wrong. “Respectfully to the great state of Texas and Attorney General Paxton, this lawsuit lacks merit and is based on inaccurate and distorted information,” the spokesperson said. “We look forward to addressing the Texas Attorney General’s allegations in court and further explaining our industry-leading, kid‑friendly parental controls and transparent privacy practices.”
The complaint also noted that Netflix falsely represents that paid subscriptions shield users from data-driven ads. It also adds that the company tracks and logs viewing habits, location and virtually every interaction on the platform — keyword searches, pausing or fast-forwarding and more, which it then uses to build consumer profiles that earn the company billions.
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This is not the first time recently a major company was sued for their addictive features. In March, a panel in Los Angeles ordered Meta and Google to pay $3 million to a 20-year-old woman who accused the tech giants of making her addicted to Instagram and YouTube as a child. The jury held the companies responsible for designing products with features hampering the plaintiff’s mental health.
The jury instructed Meta to pay 70% of the damages, with the remaining 30% to be paid by Google. An independent lawsuit will decide the financial amount of compensation. There are still thousands of lawsuits in the United States that allege companies like Meta and Google are accountable for developing addictive products with harmful effects. This case is the first of them to go to trial and is being used as a “bellwether” to provide access to other claimants that hopes to get their claims resolved.