New Mexico Orders Meta to Pay $25 Billion over Cambridge Analytica Data
A single state's jury counted more than 43 million violations and produced a penalty larger than the $16.7 billion multistate settlement reached in August 2026, which shows how the per-violation structure of state consumer law scales against Meta.
Reporting from 1 source: GIGAZINE.
New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez sued Meta in 2021 under the state's Unfair Practices Act over the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which data on more than 50 million Facebook users was improperly used. A jury found 43,899,725 violations, and Torrez ordered Meta to pay $25 billion, reduced from the roughly $219.5 billion the jury allowed. Meta intends to appeal.
Torrez sued in 2021, arguing Meta violated New Mexico's Unfair Practices Act. After the improper data use came to light, Facebook asked Cambridge Analytica to delete the data, and Torrez took issue with what the jury heard as Meta's failure to run the investigation it promised. The jury found 43,899,725 violations and set a ceiling of about $5,000 per violation, leaving the final figure to the attorney general. Torrez chose $25 billion out of roughly $219.5 billion available.
Meta Chief Legal Officer CJ Mahoney said the ruling and the attorney general's approach make it nearly impossible to do business in New Mexico. Meta has indicated it will appeal.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.