Overview
- The ruling, handed down Wednesday, October 21, 2026, follows a September jury finding that Meta committed more than 43 million violations of New Mexico consumer‑protection law for misleading users about data access and content policies.
- The judge applied the state law’s $5,000‑per‑violation formula to reach about $219.5 billion but reduced the final judgment to $25 billion and ordered fines to be allocated to New Mexico’s public schools.
- Meta has said it will appeal the decision and the company has already set aside roughly $9.9 billion in legal reserves, so any payment is likely paused and the enforceable amount could change on review.
- Plaintiffs tied the case to the 2018 Cambridge Analytica disclosures that roughly 87 million Facebook profiles were harvested without consent and used for political targeting, a scandal that previously prompted a federal settlement of about $5–6 billion.
- Legal experts and officials say the award could shape how states use per‑violation statutes to police tech platforms, raise questions about where recovered funds go, and influence other pending suits against Meta.