Meta ordered to pay $25 billion penalty in New Mexico data privacy case

Meta has been ordered to pay a $25 billion penalty by a New Mexico court in a data privacy case stemming from the Cambridge Analytica scandal, according to CNBC, the Associated Press and Reuters.

Jury found more than 43 million violations. A Santa Fe jury determined in September that Meta misled New Mexico residents about its data collection practices and efforts to limit harmful content on its platforms. The jury concluded the company committed more than 43 million violations of the state's unfair practices act.

Each violation carried a potential civil penalty of up to $5,000, with the final amount left to the judge. The judge's filing first calculated the statutory maximum of $219.5 billion, $5,000 for each of the roughly 43.9 million violations, then reduced the penalty to $25 billion.

Judge cited repeated misstatements by leadership. New Mexico District Court Judge Francis Mathew wrote that Facebook did not conduct the comprehensive investigation it promised after the Cambridge Analytica revelations. In his reasoning, the judge cited the number of willful violations, the duration of the conduct, the involvement of senior leadership and the systematic nature of the misstatements as supporting the maximum penalty of $5,000 per violation allowed under the state's Unfair Practices Act, before reducing the final award to $25 billion.

Interest on the penalty will accrue at 15% per year until paid in full. The court deferred a decision on injunctive relief pending further briefing.

Attorney general highlights accountability. New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said in a statement that powerful technology companies have operated as though their size and influence put them beyond the reach of the law. He added that the penalty order shows those violations carry real consequences.

Meta plans to challenge the ruling. Meta's chief legal officer, C.J. Mahoney, said the company is confident it will prevail on appeal. Mahoney stated the ruling makes it all but impossible to do business in New Mexico and described the lawsuit as seeking to impose a tax on speech.

Meta previously resolved various Cambridge Analytica-derived data privacy lawsuits as part of a $17.1 billion August settlement with a coalition of state attorneys general in a separate federal case about child safety and mental health, Reuters reported. Within that deal, six states settled their Cambridge Analytica suits for $459.2 million. New Mexico wasn't part of the settlement, which is why its case went to trial.

Separately, the Federal Trade Commission fined Meta $5 billion in 2019 over Cambridge Analytica.