A New Mexico state judge, Francis Mathew, ordered Meta to pay $25 billion on 21 October 2026, after a jury found the company had misled Facebook users about its privacy practices. The case was brought by New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez and stems from the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
What happened
- In September, jurors found Meta liable for more than 43 million violations of New Mexico consumer protection law.
- The judge said state law would have supported a penalty of more than $219 billion, but reduced it to $25 billion. The state had asked for $35 billion to $40 billion, and Meta argued for no more than $3.4 billion.
- The judge wrote that the wrongdoing went to the heart of Facebook’s core business practices.
- Meta says it is confident it will win on appeal. The Attorney General says the money will go to a state education fund.
Why it mattered
It is described as one of the largest verdicts against a company in US history, and it came under general consumer protection law rather than a privacy statute, showing that what a company says about privacy can be enforced as strictly as the law itself.
Lessons for organisations
Check that your privacy notices, app settings, and marketing claims match what your systems actually do with data, including data shared with partners. A regular review of privacy statements against real data flows is a simple, inexpensive control.
Source: Associated Press via ABC30
Part of our Top stories archive of headline-making events in information security, privacy, and AI. If you would like help applying the lessons to your organisation, contact us.
