A New Mexico judge ordered Meta Platforms, Inc. (formerly Facebook, Inc.) to pay $25 billion after a jury found the company committed 43,899,725 willful violations of state consumer law involving Facebook. The Oct. 21 judgment directs payment to New Mexico and adds 15% annual interest until the penalty is paid.
The court counted 43,899,720 violations involving unfair or deceptive trade practices and five involving unconscionable practices. Its findings identify 26 company representations as willful violations, covering May 24, 2010, through Aug. 18, 2021. Judge Francis J. Mathew wrote that Facebook had told users they controlled their data, adding, “This was false.”
Jurors could count a separate violation for each New Mexican a challenged statement was reasonably expected to reach. The state did not have to show that a person actually saw or relied on the statement. State law allows a maximum penalty of $5,000 for each willful violation.
New Mexico’s Department of Justice said the case addressed Facebook’s claims about user data and outside parties’ access, as well as the platform’s response to misinformation and hate speech. The dispute included Facebook’s conduct surrounding the Cambridge Analytica scandal. New Mexico brought its own case instead of resolving the claims through a multistate settlement, and the judgment directs the penalty to the state.
For comparison, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) imposed a $5 billion penalty on Facebook in 2019 in a separate privacy enforcement action. New Mexico’s award is five times that amount.
Meta Chief Legal Officer C.J. Mahoney said the company was confident it would prevail on appeal, The Associated Press and Reuters reported. The Associated Press also reported that Mahoney described the lawsuit as an effort to impose a “tax on speech.” The judge reserved the state’s request for an injunction for further briefing but set no date for it.
