Meta Platforms will appeal a $25 billion judgment in New Mexico after a jury found that the company misled consumers about its data privacy.
Meta’s chief legal officer, C.J. Mahoney, said the company is confident it will win the appeal. The judgment follows a five-year legal fight between Meta and the state of New Mexico.
The case focused on how Facebook handled user data. It also examined what the company told users about who could access their information.
Judge Francis Mathew ordered Meta to pay $25 billion after a jury found that the company made false or misleading statements about data privacy, hate speech and other issues.
The judge said state law could have allowed a penalty of more than $219 billion. However, he reduced the amount to $25 billion.
Why is Meta appealing?
Meta has rejected both the basis of the judgment and the size of the penalty.
In court filings, the company argued that the penalty should not exceed $3.45 billion. Meta also said it does not sell user data. The company argued that New Mexico had not shown that any consumer was actually misled.
Mahoney said the ruling could make it harder for companies to operate in New Mexico.
He also argued that the case seeks to use financial penalties to enforce new rules on what people can say online.
The appeal will now move the dispute into a new legal stage.
Experts expect the case to continue for some time.
Technology analyst Gil Luria of D.A. Davidson & Co said the $25 billion judgment was costly. However, he said it was unlikely to have a major effect on Meta’s value.
Meta is worth nearly $2 trillion, according to Luria. He expects the company to keep fighting similar cases through the courts.
How did the case begin?
New Mexico filed the lawsuit in 2021 after revelations about Cambridge Analytica.
The British political consulting firm is now defunct. Cambridge Analytica obtained personal information from as many as 87 million Facebook users through a third-party app.
The company used that information for voter profiling and political targeting. The data was also linked to work connected to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
New Mexico accused Meta of misleading users about who could access their information.
The state also accused the company of misleading users about how it handled hate speech and false information on Facebook.
In September, the jury found that Meta and its leadership had made 26 misleading statements on data privacy, hate speech and other matters.
The jury said those statements could have reached a large number of people. It found more than 43 million violations of New Mexico’s consumer protection laws.
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez welcomed the judgment.
He said the ruling showed that the state was ready to hold large technology companies accountable for how they treat consumers.
Meta faces more legal pressure
The New Mexico case adds to a long list of legal challenges facing Meta. The company already paid a $5 billion penalty to the US Federal Trade Commission in 2019 over the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Six other states also settled their Cambridge Analytica cases against Meta for $459.2 million. Those cases formed part of a wider $17.1 billion multistate settlement announced in August.
That settlement involved claims that Meta’s platforms had harmed teen mental health.
Meta also faces thousands of lawsuits and pressure from lawmakers over the effects of Facebook and Instagram on young users.
Earlier this year, New Mexico won $942 million in two separate trials.
Those cases involved claims that Meta’s platforms helped enable the sexual exploitation of young people. They also involved claims that Meta misled consumers about platform safety.
The latest $25 billion judgment adds another major legal challenge.
For now, the next step is the appeal.
Meta says it expects to overturn the New Mexico judgment. New Mexico, meanwhile, is defending the ruling as a major consumer protection decision.
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Last modified: October 22, 2026
