New Mexico Judge Orders Meta to Pay $25 Billion in Privacy Case After Nearly 10 Years the Cambridge Analytica Scandal

A New Mexico judge ordered Meta Platforms on Wednesday to pay $25 billion in civil penalties, weeks after a jury found the company misled consumers about its data privacy practices and content policies, Bloomberg Law reports.

First Judicial District Judge Francis Mathew handed down the penalty after a September jury verdict found Meta breached New Mexico’s Unfair Practices Act more than 43 million times. The violations covered 26 statements the company and its top executives, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, made about Facebook’s handling of user data, third-party access, hate speech and misinformation. The law allows fines of up to $5,000 per violation, which could top $219 billion. Mathew found the maximum was justified but reduced the penalty to $25 billion, writing that Facebook’s wrongdoing went to the heart of its core business practices.

Attorney General Raúl Torrez brought the case after it was revealed in 2018 that Cambridge Analytica had collected personal information from millions of Facebook users without their permission and used it for political advertising. The state asked for $35 billion to $40 billion, while Meta’s lawyers argued for no more than about $3.4 billion, saying a larger award would raise constitutional due process concerns.

The $25 billion penalty is one of the largest civil awards in U.S. legal history.

Editor’s note: Updated Nov. 1, 2026. This story is now part of Daily Reports, our New Mexico news roundup, and was revised to credit Bloomberg Law’s original reporting. Learn how Daily Reports works in our editorial standards.

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