A New Mexico court has ordered Meta to pay $25 billion in penalties in a data privacy case that grew out of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, according to a court filing reported by CNBC. The ruling, issued by district court judge Francis Mathew, follows a September jury verdict in Santa Fe that found the social media giant liable for misleading New Mexicans about how it safeguards and collects user data.
The jury concluded Meta committed more than 43 million violations of the state's unfair practices act, each carrying a civil penalty of up to $5,000. The state had sought $219.5 billion, but the judge reduced the final penalty to $25 billion. The case matters because it is one of the largest privacy penalties ever aimed at a major tech platform, and because New Mexico pursued it separately from a wider multistate settlement.
Why the New Mexico fine reached $25 billion
In his filing, Judge Mathew pointed to what he called the willful and systematic nature of the violations, the duration and repetition of the conduct, the involvement of senior Facebook leadership and the size of New Mexico audiences reached. He wrote that these factors justified the maximum penalty allowed under the New Mexico Unfair Practices Act.
The judge also criticized Facebook's internal response to the Cambridge Analytica revelations, saying the company did not conduct the comprehensive investigation it had promised. Pressure from senior executives to keep costs down, limited enforcement resources and a reluctance to set a precedent for future investigations all contributed to what he described as a willfully ineffective review. Interest on the penalty will accrue at 15% per year until it is paid in full.
Cambridge Analytica, the settlement history and Meta's next step
The Cambridge Analytica scandal erupted in 2018, when it emerged that the political consulting firm had improperly accessed information belonging to 87 million users. The episode raised broad questions about Facebook's data handling well before the company rebranded as Meta. Meta later agreed to pay $725 million to settle a related class action.
