Meta
A New Mexico state court has ordered Facebook-parent company Meta to pay a $25 billion penalty following a long legal battle stemming from the Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal from nearly a decade ago. The judgment, revealed in a court filing on Wednesday (October 21), follows a September verdict by a jury in a Santa Fe courthouse. The jury determined that Meta committed more than 43 million individual violations of the New Mexico Unfair Practices Act, each subject to a statutory civil fine of up to $5,000. The ruling revealed that while the state was initially awarded $219.5 billion, the court reduced the ultimate penalty to $25 billion. In August, the tech giant agreed to an overarching $17 billion multi-state settlement with a coalition of state attorneys general in a broader federal lawsuit centered on child safety and mental health.
Jurors found the social media giant liable for deceiving New Mexico residents regarding how it gathers and safeguards personal data, as well as how it stops harmful content from spreading across its platforms. However, the final penalty amount was left to judicial discretion. In his filing, New Mexico District Court Judge Francis Mathew delivered a rebuke of the company’s past actions and internal practices, arguing that the maximum fine per violation was fully justified.
Meta previously attempted to clear away nationwide litigation tied to the Cambridge Analytica fallout.