A state judge in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on Wednesday ordered Meta to pay $25 billion for deceiving Facebook users about their privacy. PBS NewsHour, carrying an Associated Press report, called it the largest fine ever against the company. It is five times the $5 billion the US Federal Trade Commission imposed on Facebook in 2019.
"Facebook promised users that they (the users) controlled their data. This was false," the judge wrote in the judgment, according to the AP.
How the court got to $25 billion
The case dates to 2021 and the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which a personality quiz harvested data from about 87 million Facebook profiles that a political consultancy then used for targeted ads in the 2016 US election. In September a jury found Meta liable for more than 43 million violations of New Mexico's consumer protection law.
Techweez reports that the law allows up to $5,000 per violation, which would have put the theoretical maximum above $200 billion. New Mexico's lawyers asked for $35 billion to $40 billion. Meta's lawyers argued for no more than $3.4 billion and said anything ten times that would be unconstitutional.
- Under New Mexico's constitution, consumer protection fines go to education spending
- Attorney General Raúl Torrez said the award could pay for school construction for 100 years, though the money will be tied up during the appeal
- Meta's shares traded 2% higher after the announcement, PBS reported, ahead of its quarterly earnings that afternoon
Meta says it will appeal. Its chief legal officer, C.J. Mahoney, said the ruling makes it "nearly impossible to do business in New Mexico", according to Techweez. Torrez called the judgment "an unambiguous message, to Silicon Valley".
