Meta ordered to pay New Mexico $25 billion after jury finds consumer-protection violations

Meta has been instructed to pay New Mexico $25 billion after a jury found the company violated the state’s consumer protection laws, according to a report published Tuesday that described the case and the penalty amount.

The decision was issued by Judge Francis Mathew of the First Judicial District of New Mexico on Wednesday, the report said. It followed a jury verdict tied to alleged conduct affecting more than 43 million consumers, a figure cited in the account.

The case centers on state claims that Meta’s business practices breached consumer-protection requirements. The report framed the jury’s findings as covering violations that, in combination, reached tens of millions of users across the state, leading to the unusually large damages award.

Meta, in turn, did not disclose specific details of the ruling or its immediate next steps in the materials described in the Tuesday report. The publication did not include any direct response from Meta in the information provided here, so the company’s position on the findings and the size of the penalty remains unclear from the available text.

The size of the award, $25 billion, underscores how consumer-protection lawsuits are increasingly being used to target large-scale technology platforms with broad user bases. For Meta, the risk is not only financial, but also operational, since large state judgments can drive changes to product design, marketing practices, and compliance programs, even when appeals are pending.

Meta operates major social and messaging platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Any state litigation that challenges the way these services are presented to consumers or how they handle user-related disclosures can become a recurring reputational and regulatory issue for the company, particularly as regulators and attorneys general in multiple jurisdictions scrutinize platform behavior.

Still, the report provided limited detail on the specific conduct the jury found unlawful and did not outline whether the damages are subject to reduction, stay, or modification pending appeal. It also did not spell out what exact categories of alleged violations were covered by the jury’s determination.

What to watch next is whether Meta seeks appellate review and whether New Mexico or the court provides a fuller account of the factual findings behind the jury verdict. Additional disclosures on the legal rationale for the $25 billion amount, and any timeline for appeals or enforcement, will likely shape how quickly the dispute escalates beyond the trial court.