Meta has been ordered to pay $25 billion in civil penalties after a jury found the company misled users about how their data was protected, according to the New Mexico Department of Justice.
New Mexico District Court Judge Francis J. Matthew issued the order on October 21 under the state’s Unfair Practices Act. The order follows a September jury verdict that Facebook violated the law 43,899,725 times in connection with the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Background of the Case
In the Cambridge Analytica scandal, a third-party personality quiz harvested data from roughly 87 million Facebook profiles. That data went to political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica to generate targeted ads for the 2016 election.
Penalty Calculation and Interest
Judge Matthew set the penalty at the state’s maximum of $5,000 per violation, then reduced the resulting total of more than $219 billion to $25 billion, according to the judgment. He also ordered interest to accrue at 15% a year until the penalty is paid in full.
“Facebook promised users that they (the users) controlled their data. This was false,” Matthew said.
Under the New Mexico Constitution, fines for consumer protection violations go toward state education spending.
Reactions and Next Steps
Attorney General Raúl Torrez said, “This is a historic day for New Mexico and for consumers across the country. For too long, powerful technology companies have operated as though their size and influence put them beyond the reach of the law. A New Mexico jury found nearly 44 million violations of our consumer protection statute, and this penalty order demonstrates that those violations carry real consequences.”
Meta previously said it plans to appeal the September verdict and did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the amount, reports PBS NewsHour. Meta argued that the state failed to demonstrate that the company made misleading claims about privacy or that its content moderation practices harmed New Mexico residents. The company pushed for a penalty of no more than $3.4 billion.
New Mexico and Florida were the only states that did not join an $18 billion settlement Meta reached with nearly all states and territories in August, according to PBS. The court put off a decision on the state’s request for an injunction pending further briefing.
