New Mexico Judge Orders Meta to Pay $25 Billion, the Largest Fine in Company History

A New Mexico state judge ordered Meta to pay $25 billion in penalties on October 21, the largest fine the company has ever faced, after a Santa Fe jury found Facebook liable for more than 43 million violations of the state's consumer protection law. Judge Francis Mathew ruled that the company intentionally misled users about who could access their personal data and how harmful content was moderated, writing that “Facebook promised users that they controlled their data. This was false,” as first reported by Al Jazeera.

The case traces back to New Mexico's 2021 lawsuit, filed after revelations that Cambridge Analytica, a British political consulting firm that worked for Donald Trump's 2016 campaign, harvested data from as many as 87 million Facebook users without their consent. A Santa Fe jury returned its verdict in late September, finding that 26 of 29 public statements Meta and its leadership made about privacy and content moderation were misleading.

The scale of the penalty stands out even against Meta's recent legal history. The judge calculated that the maximum civil penalty available under New Mexico law would have exceeded $219 billion, and reduced it to $25 billion, an amount that will carry 15% annual interest until paid. For comparison, the Federal Trade Commission's landmark 2019 settlement with Facebook over the same Cambridge Analytica scandal totaled $5 billion, a fine regulators called record-setting at the time. This is also Meta's second major courtroom loss in New Mexico this year: a jury ordered the company to pay $375 million in March over misleading statements about child safety, followed by an additional $567 million tied to teen mental health harms.

New Mexico's decision to litigate rather than settle sets it apart from most of the country. In August, Meta agreed to pay roughly $18 billion to resolve child-safety and privacy claims with 48 states in a combined settlement, of which only $459 million addressed legacy Cambridge Analytica privacy claims. New Mexico and Florida were the only states that declined to join that deal, choosing instead to pursue their own cases. Florida's litigation is still ongoing. Under New Mexico's constitution, the proceeds from this verdict are earmarked for the state's public education fund.

Meta has said it will appeal, and the company's chief legal officer, CJ Mahoney, argued the ruling makes it “all but impossible to do business in the state of New Mexico.” Meta's attorneys contended during the hearing that jurors found no evidence any New Mexico resident actually saw or heard the misleading statements, or was harmed by them, and that a penalty anywhere close to the $40 billion New Mexico had requested would be “shocking to the conscience.” Because the ruling is being appealed, the $25 billion figure is not yet final, and legal observers expect the amount could change before any payment is made.