A New Mexico court has ordered Meta to pay a $25 billion civil penalty in its Cambridge Analytica case — the largest privacy verdict ever handed down in the United States — according to a court filing revealed Wednesday, CNBC reported. The penalty, far above the $5 billion record fine the FTC imposed on Facebook in 2019, is the culmination of a case New Mexico chose to fight alone, declining to join the multi-state settlement signed by 48 other states.
The order follows a Santa Fe jury’s Sept. 25 finding that Facebook committed 43,899,725 willful violations of New Mexico’s Unfair Practices Act by misleading state residents about how it collects and safeguards their data, Tech Times reports. Meta has not paid the penalty and says it will appeal, meaning the case could continue for years.
How 43.9 million violations became $25 billion
Because each violation can carry up to $5,000 in civil penalties, the jury’s count of 43,899,725 violations initially produced a penalty figure of $219.5 billion — an amount District Judge Francis Mathew reduced to $25 billion in his written judgment, according to CNBC and Tech Times. The final figure is not the mathematical ceiling; it is the judge’s discretionary award.
Judge Mathew cited “the extraordinary number of willful violations,” along with their duration and repetition, the breadth of subjects covered, the involvement of senior Facebook leadership, the size of the affected New Mexico audiences, and what he described as “clearly intentional and systematic” conduct, Tech Times reports.
The state’s outside counsel, Randi McGinn of Motley Rice, had asked for between $35 billion and $40 billion at the Oct. 1 sentencing hearing. Meta argued for a $3.45 billion cap, warning that a higher award would make it economically unviable to keep operating in New Mexico, according to Tech Times. The judge landed between the two positions — at a number that still exceeds Meta’s entire Q1 2026 operating income of $22.87 billion. Interest will accrue at 15 percent per year until the penalty is paid in full.
The one state that wouldn’t settle
New Mexico, whose case is formally State of New Mexico v. Facebook, Case No. D-101-CV-2021-00132, filed in 2021, was the only state to take its Cambridge Analytica claims to a full jury trial, openclassactions.com reports. When 48 other states signed an August 2026 multi-state settlement, New Mexico stayed out — a gamble that has now produced a headline number larger than the coordinated settlement it declined.
The money would go to the State of New Mexico rather than individual users, with the funds directed to the state’s public education system under the state constitution, Tech Times reports.
The decision made New Mexico an outlier: every other state with a comparable claim accepted the August 2026 settlement framework, while Torrez’s office chose instead to test its consumer-protection theory before a jury, the AP reports.
“For too long, powerful technology companies have operated as though their size and influence put them beyond the reach of the law,” Attorney General Raúl Torrez said, adding that “this penalty order demonstrates that those violations carry real consequences,” according to CNBC.
Meta plans to appeal
Meta’s chief legal officer, C.J. Mahoney, said the company is “confident” it will “prevail on appeal,” arguing the ruling “makes it all but impossible to do business in the state of New Mexico,” CNBC reported. Mahoney also characterized the lawsuit as “a tax on speech.”
The case traces back to the 2018 Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which the political consultancy was reported to have improperly accessed the data of 87 million Facebook users. Meta paid $725 million in 2022 to settle a related class action, according to CNBC. New Mexico’s earlier case against Meta also produced a separate result this year: a court order requiring Meta to pay $942 million and overhaul child protections on Facebook and Instagram, Consumer Protection UK reported.
Until the appeals run their course, the Meta New Mexico $25 billion penalty remains an ordered penalty rather than a payment — but as a signal to the next round of state privacy enforcement, it is already the biggest number the tech industry has seen.
