New Mexico announces $25 billion penalty against Meta over Cambridge Analytica-era privacy practices
A jury found almost 44 million violations of the state's Unfair Practices Act, covering Meta's statements and practices on third-party data access, user privacy and harmful content.
The New Mexico Department of Justice has announced that the state is imposing a $25 billion penalty on Meta for breaching New Mexico’s Unfair Practices Act, according to the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC). A jury found that Meta committed 43,899,725 violations of the Act during the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
The jury examined Meta’s statements and practices on third-party access to personal data, user privacy violations and its handling of harmful content.
The penalty adds to earlier Cambridge Analytica-related costs. In 2022, Meta agreed to pay $725 million to settle a class action over the mishandling of 87 million users’ data. In August, it settled several Cambridge Analytica privacy claims as part of a settlement of nearly $17 billion with a coalition of state attorneys general. EPIC reports that $459 million of that sum relates to Cambridge Analytica claims. The source does not say whether Meta will appeal.
Editor’s note: This article is based on a secondary report by EPIC, a privacy advocacy group, not on the New Mexico Department of Justice’s own announcement.
Why it matters
The case shows that US states can use general consumer-protection statutes, rather than dedicated privacy laws, to penalise misleading statements about data sharing. Because penalties can be counted per violation, exposure can grow very large. Teams should check that public privacy statements match how partners and developers actually access personal data, and keep evidence of the controls that limit that access. Old data-sharing arrangements should be reviewed now, since this penalty arrives years after the original conduct.
Status: Court ruling. Jury verdict announced by New Mexico; reported by EPIC
Sources
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Governance areas
Enforcement
- Action
- Court ruling
- Authority
- New Mexico (jury verdict; state Department of Justice)
- Concerning
- Meta
- Amount
- USD 25bn
- Law
- New Mexico Unfair Practices Act
Case status: Open
Enforcement trackerWho should care
- DPO
- Legal & compliance
- CDO
- Data stewards