New Mexico Judge Orders Meta to Pay $25 Billion in Data-Privacy Case
A U.S. judge ruled that Meta must pay $25 billion to New Mexico after a jury found it violated consumer-protection laws following the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which affected data from more than 43 million users.
A judge in New Mexico ordered Meta, the technology company that owns Facebook, to pay $25 billion for violating state law in connection with the privacy-breach scandal known as the Cambridge Analytica case.
Judge Francis Mathew issued the ruling in the lawsuit brought by the state, which had sought between $35 billion and $40 billion in alleged damages, according to the Associated Press.
In September, a jury found Meta liable for breaching New Mexico's consumer-protection laws after Cambridge Analytica exploited data from more than 43 million users when Facebook allowed the political consultancy to collect users' data to use in preparing targeted political ads for the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Forty-eight other states reached a nationwide settlement with Facebook in the case, while New Mexico chose to pursue separate litigation against the social media company.
