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Judge orders Meta to pay $25 billion to New Mexico over Cambridge Analytica case

newsOct 22, 202619895

New Mexico District Court Judge Francis Mathew on Wednesday ordered Meta to pay $25 billion in penalties after a Santa Fe jury in September found the company liable for misleading state citizens about how it collected and safeguarded user data in the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The jury found more than 43 million violations of New Mexico’s Unfair Practices Act, with each violation carrying a statutory penalty as high as $5,000; the trial record initially yielded a $219.5 billion award that Mathew reduced to $25 billion. The judge said the number, duration, repetition, involvement of senior Facebook leadership, and the intentional and systematic nature of the misstatements supported the maximum penalty per violation. The filing directs interest to accrue at 15 percent per year until the fine is paid. New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said the order shows violations carry real consequences. Meta chief legal officer C.J. Mahoney said the company is confident it will prevail on appeal and called the suit an attempt to impose a tax on speech. Meta previously resolved related Cambridge Analytica suits in an August settlement of nearly $17 billion with a coalition of state attorneys general and paid $725 million in a 2022 class action settlement.

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Meta has been ordered to pay $25B for misleading Facebook users about data privacy

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