Meta hit with $25-billion penalty for misleading consumers in New Mexico over Cambridge Analytica case — SkimNews
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- A New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay $25 billion, a penalty the judge said was warranted but reduced from an initial figure of over $219 billion based on state law.
- The jury found that 26 of 29 statements made by Meta and its leadership were misleading, constituting over 43 million violations of state consumer protection law.
- Meta's chief legal officer said the company is confident it will win on appeal, arguing the ruling makes it 'all but impossible to do business' in New Mexico and seeks to tax speech.
- New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez called the verdict a 'clear warning' to Big Tech and said all penalty money will go to the state's school system.
- Analyst Gil Luria noted the penalty is costly but unlikely to impact Meta's nearly $2 trillion value, as the company will likely appeal and drag out the case.
- The verdict is the largest single-state penalty against Meta from the Cambridge Analytica scandal, surpassing a 2019 $5 billion FTC fine and a separate $567 million New Mexico penalty for teen mental health harms.
Why it matters: This $25 billion penalty directly challenges Meta's core business model of monetizing user data, setting a massive new benchmark for state-level enforcement. For New Mexico's public schools, the potential payout represents a transformative funding injection, though lengthy appeals will delay any actual transfer.
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