A US jury found 43 million violations; Meta now plans to appeal the record penalty
Meta Platforms was ordered to pay New Mexico US$25bn on Wednesday, hours after reporting third-quarter operating income of nearly US$13bn.
Shares rose more than 3 percent in after-hours trading, CNN reported, and revenue climbed 26 percent year over year to more than US$64bn.
New Mexico district court judge Francis Mathew set the award at US$219.5bn under state law before reducing it to US$25bn, CNBC reported from the court filing.
Interest accrues at 15 percent a year until the penalty is paid in full.
Reuters described the sum as one of the largest financial penalties in US history.
“The harm in this matter is difficult to overstate, and goes to the heart of Facebook’s basic business proposition,” Mathew wrote in a 20-page judgment quoted by the New York Times.
According to CNBC, a Santa Fe jury found in September that Meta committed more than 43 million violations of New Mexico’s Unfair Practices Act, each carrying a civil penalty of up to US$5,000,
Jurors concluded that 26 of 29 statements made by Meta and its leadership on data privacy and content moderation were unfair or deceptive, the New York Times reported.
New Mexico lawyer Randi McGinn asked for between US$35bn and US$40bn at an October hearing, Reuters reported, while Meta urged a cap of US$3.45bn, arguing it does not sell user data and that the state had not proven any consumer was misled.
Chief legal officer CJ Mahoney said Meta will appeal.
“This ruling, and the Attorney General’s approach to this enforcement, makes it all but impossible to do business in the state of New Mexico,” Mahoney said in a statement carried by Reuters.
Attorney general Raúl Torrez told reporters in Albuquerque that the award will go into a fund for the state’s education system, the New York Times reported.
Gil Luria, head of technology research at DA Davidson & Co, told Reuters the ruling was costly but unlikely to affect the company’s value.
“Meta is worth nearly two trillion dollars, and will likely continue to appeal these cases and drag them out,” Luria said.
The New York Times put Meta’s valuation at roughly US$1.8tn and its first-half 2026 profit at US$42.62bn.
Capital expenditures reached nearly US$35bn in the quarter, up 80 percent, with full-year guidance narrowed to between US$135bn and US$145bn, CNN reported.
Chief financial officer Susan Li told analysts the company is monitoring “active legal and regulatory matters that could significantly impact our business and financial results.”
Former attorney general Hector Balderas filed the suit in 2021 after revelations that Cambridge Analytica, a now-defunct British political consulting firm whose clients included Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, obtained data from as many as 87 million Facebook users without their consent, CNBC reported.
Meta paid a US$5bn Federal Trade Commission penalty in 2019 and US$725m to settle a related class action in 2022.
Six states settled Cambridge Analytica claims for US$459.2m within the August multistate settlement, valued at US$17.1bn by Reuters and at US$18bn by CNN.
New Mexico was not a party to it, and separately won a US$375m jury award in March and a US$567m abatement fund payment in August over child safety claims.
