New Mexico Judge Orders Meta to Pay $25 Billion in Penalties
The record state judgment penalizes deceptive user privacy statements and provides dedicated funding to public schools if upheld on appeal.
A state judge in Santa Fe ordered Meta Platforms on October 21, 2026, to pay $25 billion in civil penalties for deceptive privacy statements.
Judge Francis Mathew of New Mexico’s First Judicial District Court issued the ruling. The order followed a September 2026 jury verdict against the company under the New Mexico Unfair Practices Act.
Statutory formulas under the act allow up to $5,000 for each willful violation. Those calculations initially produced a penalty exceeding $219 billion, but Mathew lowered the assessment to $25 billion. Meta had requested that any penalty not exceed $3.4 billion, arguing residents suffered no demonstrable harm.
The jury found Meta liable for more than 43 million consumer protection violations. Jurors reviewed 34 public statements regarding privacy, user control, and content moderation, deciding that most were deceptive.
Prosecutors argued that misleading statements reached beyond registered users to New Mexico's general population. That approach generated 2.1 million counted violations for certain individual counts. Jurors found in Meta's favor on claims involving statements about removing COVID-19 misinformation.
Mathew stated in the judgment that Facebook falsely promised users that they maintained control over their personal data. The judge found that executives Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg participated in misrepresentations that were part of a coherent strategy to mislead.
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez described the judgment as one of the largest single-state verdicts against a corporation in United States history. Torrez said the decision sends an unambiguous message that companies cannot deceive the public over personal information without facing consequences.
The state filed the lawsuit in 2021 regarding the Cambridge Analytica data-harvesting scandal. The political consulting firm worked for Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. It illicitly acquired personal data from roughly 87 million Facebook profiles through a third-party quiz application.
A national settlement resolved claims from 48 states and shielded Meta from future liability. New Mexico and Florida were the only states that refused to sign that agreement. State law directs collected penalty money to New Mexico public schools.
Meta Chief Legal Officer C.J. Mahoney said the company expects to prevail on appeal. Mahoney stated that the ruling and enforcement approach make it virtually impossible to conduct business in New Mexico.
Meta plans to appeal the verdict and fine to state appellate courts. The challenge will focus on calculating fines using the general population. Payment of the $25 billion penalty remains stayed pending the appeals.
