Meta hit with a staggering $25 billion penalty in New Mexico privacy case linked to Cambridge Analytica scandal-here's what happened

Meta has been ordered to pay $25 billion in penalties in a New Mexico privacy case linked to the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The penalty is one of the largest imposed on the tech giant. Meta has criticized the decision and says it plans to appeal.

Meta must pay $25 billion after a New Mexico court found that its conduct violated the state's consumer protection law. The case focused on claims that Facebook misled users about its data collection practices and how it protected people from harmful content, as per CNBC and The NYT.

The decision follows a jury verdict in September that found Meta liable for more than 43 million violations of New Mexico's unfair practices law. Each violation could carry a civil penalty of up to $5,000.


Although the court filing initially showed an award of $219.5 billion, the final penalty was reduced to $25 billion.

Why did New Mexico fine Meta $25 billion?

New Mexico District Court Judge Francis Mathew said the scale and nature of the violations justified the highest penalty allowed under state law.

“The extraordinary number of willful violations found by the jury, the duration and repetition of the conduct, the breadth of subjects on which violations occurred, the involvement of senior Facebook leadership, the size of New Mexico audiences reached, and the clear intentional and systematic nature of Facebook’s repeated misstatements established in the trial record support the highest level of penalty allowed by the New Mexico Unfair Practices Act - $5,000 per violation found by the jury,” Mathew wrote.

The judge also ordered interest to accrue at 15% annually until the penalty is paid in full.

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez welcomed the decision. “For too long, powerful technology companies have operated as though their size and influence put them beyond the reach of the law,” he said.

He added that “this penalty order demonstrates that those violations carry real consequences.”

How has Meta responded to the ruling?

Meta chief legal officer C.J. Mahoney criticized the decision and said the company expects to challenge it in court. “We are confident that we will prevail on appeal,” Mahoney said.

He also argued that the case could make operating in New Mexico difficult. “This ruling, and the Attorney General’s approach to this enforcement, makes it all but impossible to do business in the state of New Mexico,” he said. “At its core, this lawsuit seeks to impose a tax on speech to enforce new rules for what people can say online.”

How is the case connected to Cambridge Analytica

The lawsuit traces back to the Cambridge Analytica scandal. It emerged in 2018. The political consulting firm was accused of improperly accessing information belonging to 87 million Facebook users, raising questions about the company's privacy practices.

In the court filing, Mathew said Facebook had failed to carry out the thorough investigation it had promised after the scandal. The judge described the internal review as “willfully ineffective,” citing pressure to limit costs, insufficient enforcement resources and inadequate investigative methods.

Former New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas filed the lawsuit in 2021. The case proceeded separately after New Mexico was excluded from a wider settlement involving other state attorneys general.

Meta had previously agreed to pay $725 million to settle a related class-action lawsuit in 2022. The company also faces a separate New Mexico child safety case, in which a jury ordered it to pay $375 million in March, followed by a judge's order for a further $567 million abatement fund.