SANTA FE, N.M. — A state court jury here has handed Meta Platforms the largest privacy verdict ever leveled against a company in the United States, finding that the Facebook and Instagram parent misled New Mexico consumers about how it handled their personal data for years.

The jury concluded Meta committed more than 43 million violations of New Mexico's Unfair Practices Act, each carrying a maximum civil penalty of $5,000 — a tally that, on paper, could have topped $219 billion. State court Judge Francis Mathew ultimately set the penalty at $25 billion, still enough for New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez to call it "one of the largest, if not the single largest, state verdict against a company in American history."

The case traces back a decade, to the Cambridge Analytica scandal that rocked Facebook in 2018. New Mexico's lawsuit alleged the political consulting firm — hired by Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign — harvested data from millions of Facebook users without their consent, and that Meta misled the public about how well it was policing that kind of access. Jurors found in September that 26 of 29 statements New Mexico challenged were misleading, setting up this week's penalty phase.

ONE OF THE LARGEST, IF NOT THE SINGLE LARGEST, STATE VERDICT AGAINST A COMPANY IN AMERICAN HISTORY.

Meta had urged the judge to cap any penalty at $3.45 billion, arguing in court filings that a bigger number risked "scaring businesses out of" New Mexico altogether. The company also maintains it does not sell user data and that the state failed to prove any specific New Mexico consumer was actually deceived. A Meta spokesperson said the company's chief legal officer expects Meta to "prevail on appeal," and the company is expected to challenge the verdict immediately.

Under New Mexico law, the entire penalty — all $25 billion of it, assuming it survives appeal — is directed to the state's public school system rather than the attorney general's office or the general fund, a detail Torrez's office emphasized in announcing the result.

Not Meta's First New Mexico Reckoning

This is the second major courtroom defeat New Mexico has handed Meta this year. In March, a separate Santa Fe jury ordered the company to pay $375 million after finding it violated the same consumer-protection law through child-safety failures on its platforms — a verdict Meta is also appealing. Taken together, the two cases have made New Mexico an unlikely epicenter of Meta's legal exposure, years after federal regulators and European authorities first began scrutinizing the company's data practices.

The timing compounds a rough stretch for Meta's legal team. The same day the Santa Fe verdict landed, Meta's own third-quarter earnings report disclosed a separate $9.89 billion charge tied to an August settlement with 52 state attorneys general over allegations that Facebook and Instagram harmed teenagers' mental health — a deal that could ultimately cost the company up to $18.59 billion. That charge dragged Meta's operating margin down to 20% from 40% a year earlier, even as revenue climbed 26% to $64.6 billion, beating Wall Street's expectations.

What's Next

Meta's appeal of the $25 billion judgment is expected to take months, if not years, to resolve, and the company has signaled it will fight the figure at every stage. New Mexico officials, meanwhile, say they view the verdict — alongside the March child-safety judgment — as a template other states could follow in pursuing their own consumer-protection claims against the social media giant. Legal analysts say the size of the award, even if reduced further on appeal, is likely to intensify pressure on Meta's board over how the company discloses data-sharing practices going forward.