Today a New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay $25 billion for deceiving users about its data privacy practices, after a Santa Fe jury found the company committed 43 million violations of the state’s consumer protection laws. In response, the American Economic Liberties Project released the following statement:

“New Mexico just showed the country what happens when an enforcer has the courage to let a jury decide,” said Nidhi Hegde, Executive Director of the American Economic Liberties Project. “A jury heard the evidence and found 43 million separate privacy violations. A judge put the price at $25 billion. Compare that to the states that settled similar Cambridge Analytica claims two months ago for $459 million, combined. That is what settlements do: they discount the consequences a jury would actually impose.” 

“Every state weighing whether to fight or settle a dominant corporation should study the arithmetic,” Hegde continued. “One state’s jury verdict dwarfs what multiple states accepted at the negotiating table.” 

“Twenty-five billion is a drop in the bucket for Meta. But it shows that juries, ordinary people, want to see accountability” Hegde continued. “But fines will never be enough.  As a repeat offender, Meta will just treat it as the cost of doing business. Right now, they are rolling out Muse, an AI assistant encouraging people to trust it with everything from their bank accounts to their medical information. Which is why we need more enforcers with courage and laws with actual teeth to rein them in.” 

New Mexico’s verdict is part of a pattern. The state attorneys general Raúl Torrez who took Live Nation to trial won a unanimous monopolization verdict after the DOJ settled mid-trial. New Mexico also pressed its own cases against Meta to judgment three times now: $375 million in March over child safety violations, $567 million in a second child safety case this August, and now $25 billion. This has all been done while other enforcers signed a settlement that leaves them unlikely to ever pursue what New Mexico just won. 

“The verdict highlights the strengths of the legal system when juries are actually asked to weigh in” said Lee Hepner, Senior Legal Counsel at the American Economic Liberties Project, noting that while the penalty is monumental it is also a fraction of what it should be as the judge reduced the penalty to 11.4% of the mandatory civil penalty. 

“An AG and jury can only do so much. We need strong judges in our courts as well, individuals who are willing to hold power to true account,” Hepner continued. 

Read Lee Hepner’s analysis of the privacy risks in Meta’s Muse assistant in the Los Angeles Times.

Learn more about Economic Liberties here.