New Mexico judge orders Meta to pay $25 billion in data-privacy penalties

A New Mexico district court ordered Meta Platforms Inc. to pay $25 billion in civil penalties after a Santa Fe jury found the company responsible for more than 43 million violations of the state’s unfair practices act. The violations stem from the 2018 Cambridge Analytica data-privacy scandal and relate to how Meta misled users about data collection, safeguards and the spread of harmful content.

Judge Francis Mathew wrote that the jury’s findings showed “the duration and repetition of the conduct, the breadth of subjects on which violations occurred, the involvement of senior Facebook leadership, the size of New Mexico audiences reached, and the clear intentional and systematic nature of Facebook’s repeated misstatements,” supporting the maximum penalty of $5,000 per violation. Interest on the fine will accrue at 15 % per year until fully paid.

Meta has not commented on the order. The company previously settled related Cambridge Analytica lawsuits nationwide for about $17 billion and paid $725 million in a 2022 class-action settlement. New Mexico’s case proceeded separately because the state was not part of the earlier settlement.

"Facebook did not conduct the comprehensive investigation that it promised" – Judge Mathew, referencing the company’s internal review after the Cambridge Analytica revelations.

Former state Attorney General Hector Balderas filed the lawsuit in 2021, and current Attorney General Raúl Torrez oversaw the trial. Torrez also led a separate child-safety case that resulted in a $375 million jury award and a later $567 million abatement fund order, which Meta said it will appeal.