Judge orders Meta to pay US$25 billion over data lies

Judge imposes record US$25 billion penalty

New Mexico District Court Judge Francis J. Mathew ordered Meta to pay US$25 billion in civil penalties on 21 October 2026.^[1] A jury found in September that Facebook had violated the state's Unfair Practices Act 43,899,725 times.^[2]

The case grew out of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The jury found Facebook misled users about how it handled their personal data.^[2]

Judge finds the deception was intentional

Judge Mathew wrote that Facebook's deception was intentional and that executives consistently misled users about how the platform worked.^[3] "Facebook promised users that they [the users] controlled their data. This was false," he wrote.^[3]

Meta had argued it should pay no more than US$3.4 billion.^[3]

Attorney-General Raúl Torrez said the award is a warning to tech companies that New Mexico will hold them accountable.^[3] "This is a historic day for New Mexico and for consumers across the country," he said.^[2]

Meta to appeal

"At its core, this lawsuit seeks to impose a tax on speech to enforce new rules for what people can say online. We are confident we will prevail on appeal," Meta chief legal officer CJ Mahoney said.^[3]

Interest will accrue on the penalty during the appeal. It could take years before the state sees any of the money.^[3]

Australia settled its own case

Australia's privacy regulator pursued Meta over the same scandal. In December 2024, Meta agreed to a A$50 million payment program for affected Australian users, and the Australian Information Commissioner withdrew civil penalty proceedings in the Federal Court.^[4]

Since late 2022, the maximum penalty for serious or repeated privacy breaches in Australia has been the greater of A$50 million, three times the benefit obtained, or 30 per cent of a company's adjusted turnover.^[5]