U.S.
New Mexico judge orders Meta to pay $25 billion in Facebook privacy case
The order follows a September jury verdict over Facebook’s statements about user data and privacy. Meta says it expects to prevail on appeal, so the amount is not a final resolution.
Executive summary
- A judge set a $25 billion civil penalty: A New Mexico state court ordered Meta to pay $25 billion after a jury found 43,899,725 willful violations of the state’s Unfair Practices Act. The September verdict concerned Facebook’s statements about users’ control of personal data and the company’s handling of information; the court’s October order set the penalty.[1][2][3]
- Meta says it will appeal: Meta’s chief legal officer said the company is confident it will prevail on appeal. The judgment is a major state-court penalty, but appellate proceedings could delay or change what Meta ultimately pays.[2][4][5]
A New Mexico district judge ordered Meta Platforms to pay $25 billion in civil penalties after a jury found that Facebook committed 43,899,725 willful violations of the state’s Unfair Practices Act. The verdict, returned in September, found the company liable for misleading consumers about its handling of personal information and the control users had over their data. Judge Francis J. Mathew’s October 21 order set the amount, according to the court filing and the state attorney general’s office.[1][3][2]
The judgment stems from New Mexico’s case over Facebook’s privacy representations, brought after the Cambridge Analytica scandal made public the collection of data from Facebook users for political targeting. The state’s claims also examined what Facebook told users about third-party access and its response to the scandal. The verdict did not accept every allegation: the Associated Press reported that jurors rejected some claims about Facebook’s statements on removing harmful content, including pandemic misinformation.[1][2][4]
New Mexico law allows a civil penalty of up to $5,000 for each willful violation. Applying that ceiling to the jury’s count would exceed $219 billion; the court instead ordered $25 billion. The state described the ruling as one of the largest corporate penalties in U.S. history. It is a state-law consumer protection judgment, not a federal fine or a direct damages award to individual Facebook users.[1][3][2][4]
The scale stands apart from Meta’s prior Cambridge Analytica-related settlements: the Federal Trade Commission imposed a $5 billion penalty in 2019, while Facebook later paid $725 million to settle a separate class action, AP reported. Those cases involved different legal claims and resolutions, so they are context rather than directly comparable rulings.[2][5]
Meta said it plans to appeal and argued that New Mexico’s enforcement approach makes it difficult to do business in the state. The company’s chief legal officer characterized the case as an effort to regulate speech; the state maintains that it enforced consumer protection law against deceptive statements. The competing positions are now part of a high-stakes appeal, and the $25 billion order may not be the final amount.[2][4][5]
The case also marks New Mexico’s decision to pursue its claims on its own rather than join an August multistate settlement over separate child-safety allegations. The judgment therefore concerns the state’s privacy and consumer-protection case, not the teen safety settlement or the March verdict in a separate New Mexico case about children’s safety online.[2][4][3]