New Mexico court orders Meta to pay $25 billion over Facebook user data

A state district court in New Mexico on 21 October ordered Meta Platforms to pay $25 billion, Reuters reported. Sankei, citing Kyodo, said the amount is to be paid to the state and is about 3.9 trillion yen, and described the penalty as being for violating the state's consumer protection law. The case concerned the handling of Facebook users' personal information. [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]

Sankei reported that a state court jury found in September that Meta had violated the consumer protection law. The jury found that Meta's statements, including that users have the right to decide how their personal information is handled and that Facebook does not sell personal information to advertisers, were false or misleading. Reuters described the finding as one that Meta deceived users. [ 2 , 3 ]

According to Reuters, Judge Francis Matthew (フランシス・マシュー) said in the order following the verdict that the matter concerned the core business practices of Facebook. The judge considered a penalty of more than $219 billion appropriate under state law but reduced it to $25 billion. New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torres (ラウル・トレス) said it was among the largest judgments a single state has won against a company in US history. [ 2 ]

Meta has said it would appeal. Chief Legal Officer C.J. Mahoney (C・J・マホニー) said in a statement that the company was confident of winning on appeal. He said the ruling and the attorney general's approach to enforcement would make it effectively impossible to do business in New Mexico, and that the suit was in essence an attempt to tax speech by imposing new rules on what people can say online. Reuters noted that Meta had argued earlier that multibillion-dollar penalties could violate constitutional protections against denial of due process and excessive fines. [ 2 , 3 ]

The case traces to the disclosure that the British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica collected personal data of up to 87 million Facebook users through third-party apps. Reuters described the firm as having been involved in Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, and said the data was allegedly obtained without users' consent. New Mexico's attorney general sued Meta in 2021. Reuters said the new penalty is the largest imposed on Meta over the Cambridge Analytica matter; in 2019 the US Federal Trade Commission fined the company $5 billion over the same issue. Sankei, citing US media, said the amount is among the largest imposed on an IT company. [ 2 , 3 ]