DALLAS, TEXAS – In a high-profile legal action filed Monday, Texas’ top law enforcement official has brought a landmark lawsuit against global streaming leader Netflix, leveling serious claims that the company violates state consumer protection rules through unauthorized user data harvesting and deliberately addictive platform design. In the explosive opening of his 59-page complaint filed at a Dallas-area state court, Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton cut straight to the heart of his allegations: “When you watch Netflix, Netflix watches you.”
Per an official press release accompanying the suit, Paxton argues that Netflix operates as an unrestricted giant data warehouse, continuously tracking and recording not just users’ viewing histories and content preferences, but a wide range of what he calls “sensitive behavioral data” — with children and teen users among those improperly monitored. The complaint further alleges that Netflix monetizes this harvested personal information by sharing granular user insights with third-party advertisers, enabling highly targeted ad campaigns that generate billions in revenue for the company at the expense of consumer privacy.
A second core allegation centers on Netflix’s deliberate use of platform features designed to foster compulsive viewing, particularly among vulnerable young users. The most prominent example cited is the platform’s default-enabled autoplay function, which is activated for all users including children, automatically loading the next episode of a series immediately after the previous one ends. Paxton stresses that this feature removes natural stopping points for viewing, encouraging extended, addictive binge-watching habits that disproportionately impact minors.
In his public statement, Paxton pushed back against Netflix’s long-held public branding, saying: “Netflix is not the ad-free and kid-friendly platform it claims to be. Instead, it has misled consumers while exploiting their private data to make billions.”
The legal action comes amid a heated Republican primary race for U.S. Senate, where Paxton is challenging long-serving incumbent Senator John Cornyn for the party’s nomination. The lawsuit seeks immediate court injunctions to block Netflix from continuing to collect or share consumer data for the duration of the litigation. It also requests civil penalties of up to $10,000 for each confirmed violation of Texas’ Deceptive Trade Practices Act, which could amount to massive financial penalties given the scale of Netflix’s user base in the state.
As of Tuesday morning, Netflix has not yet issued a public response to the allegations laid out in the suit.