Texas AG Ken Paxton Files Lawsuit Against Netflix Alleging Deceptive Data Practices
Texas filed suit in Collin County accusing Netflix of tracking users without consent, selling their data to brokers including Experian and Acxiom, and designing an addictive platform while misrepresenting its privacy and advertising policies. The complaint cites Reed Hastings' 2020 statement that Netflix collects nothing and details the company's shift to an ad-supported tier in 2022.
VarietyTexas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against Netflix on Monday in state court in Collin County. According to the complaint, the streaming service is accused of collecting consumer data without consent, including from children, and of designing its platform in ways that allegedly promote addictive use.
The suit claims Netflix has for years represented to consumers that it did not collect or share user data. The complaint states the company tracked viewing habits and preferences and shared that information with commercial data brokers and advertising technology companies.
It further alleges that Netflix promoted itself as an escape from Big Tech surveillance while later introducing an ad-supported streaming plan in 2022.
The complaint accuses the company of building a system that collects information about user events including location, device used, search terms and how users rate content. Netflix then made this information available to data brokers such as Experian and Acxiom, according to the filing.
The suit notes that subscribers to Netflix’s ad-supported Basic tier more than doubled to 70 million from 2024 to 2025, with the company generating $1.5 billion from ads in 2025.
Paxton’s office alleges the company violated the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. The attorney general stated, “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 lawsuit also claims Netflix misled subscribers about child safety by keeping its autoplay feature enabled by default across both adult and children’s profiles. Paxton is seeking a court order to block the company’s collection and disclosure of user data and to disable autoplay by default on kids’ profiles.
This is not the first legal action against Netflix in Texas. A grand jury in Tyler County indicted the streamer in 2020 over its film “Cuties.”
Netflix did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Transparency
Rewrite largely sticks to complaint language but inherits loaded valence from Paxton’s suit and prior Texas actions, with selective sourcing and mild lede centering on the messenger.
Selective sourcing: One-sided sourcing relies entirely on AG’s framing
The same facts could be read as a routine enforcement action against common industry data practices that Netflix updated transparently when it entered advertising, consistent with how other streaming and tech firms operate.
13 independent outlets report the same core facts. This score blends how many outlets corroborate, their editorial tier, and how closely their facts agree — it measures corroboration, not proof.
Sources framed at 68 → our rewrite 28. We stripped 40 points of framing the sources carried in.
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