Meta Flagged $62.85B New Mexico Penalty Demand, but Jury Count Points to $219.5B Maximum

Meta Platforms now faces a theoretical maximum penalty of about $219.5 billion in New Mexico after a Santa Fe jury on Friday, 25 September 2026, found Facebook liable for 43.9 million violations of the state's Unfair Practices Act.

The figure, derived from the law's $5,000-per-violation ceiling, far exceeds the $62.85 billion exposure Meta had previously disclosed to shareholders.

The number is not a judgment against Meta. The jury determined liability and the number of violations. Judge Francis Mathew will decide the civil penalty in a later phase, and the New Mexico Department of Justice has said it will seek the maximum available amount.

The verdict followed a two-week trial over statements Facebook made about user data, misinformation, hate speech, its Community Standards and its response to the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Jurors found 26 of 29 challenged statements to be wilfully deceptive.

The Count Behind the $219.5 Billion Ceiling

The special verdict form assigns 2.1 million violations to 11 statements and 1,386,648 violations to another 15. The first group produces 23.1 million violations. The second produces 20,799,720. Together, they total 43,899,720, five fewer than the 43,899,725 figure published by the New Mexico Department of Justice.

New Mexico's Unfair Practices Act permits a civil penalty of up to $5,000 for each wilful violation. Applying that maximum to the verdict-form count produces $219,498,600,000. Using the state's five-count higher figure produces $219,498,625,000. Both round to $219.5 billion. The jury did not award that amount.

The verdict form does not itself explain the basis for the two audience figures. They correspond to the estimated reach of the statements: the 2.1 million figure aligns with New Mexico's approximate population, while 1,386,648 aligns with an estimate of Facebook users in the state.

That counting method is now central to the penalty phase. A single public statement could generate millions of separate violations, rather than one violation for the statement itself.

Meta's Earlier $62.85 Billion Disclosure

Meta's $62.85 billion figure came before the verdict. In its second-quarter 2026 filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Meta said the New Mexico attorney general had indicated an intention to seek up to $62.85 billion in penalties. The filing said the trial was scheduled to begin on 8 September 2026.

The new ceiling therefore comes from the jury's violation count, rather than a change to the statutory maximum. New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said after the verdict that the state would seek the maximum available penalties. The state is also seeking injunctive relief to prevent similar practices in the future.

Meta said it disagrees with the verdict and will continue to defend itself against 'efforts to distort our record'. The company also said its platforms are forums for free expression and that it has a First Amendment right to manage them while protecting users' information and giving them control over their data.

Zuckerberg Statements Account for More Than Half

The jury considered statements by Mark Zuckerberg, former chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, other Meta executives and the company itself. Zuckerberg's statements account for about 24.4 million of the violations on the verdict form, or roughly 55.6 per cent of the total.

The largest block of violations was tied to statements about Facebook's response to the Cambridge Analytica scandal, including promises to investigate third-party applications, conduct forensic audits, take action against developers and notify affected users.

The jury rejected three of the 29 statements put before it while finding the other 26 wilfully deceptive, according to the New Mexico Department of Justice.

The findings covered more than privacy. The case also examined Facebook's public claims about misinformation, hate speech and whether its Community Standards were applied consistently.

The Penalty Has Not Been Set

New Mexico's law allows a court to impose up to $5,000 for each wilful violation. The maximum is not mandatory. Meta can challenge the verdict through post-trial proceedings and appeal. The eventual penalty will depend on the court's ruling on the jury's findings and the applicable legal limits.

The case is separate from another New Mexico action against Meta over child safety. In that case, a different jury found 75,000 UPA violations and imposed the $5,000 maximum, producing a $375 million civil penalty.

In August, Judge Bryan Biedscheid ordered a further $567 million for an abatement fund and other relief, bringing the company's financial exposure in that case to $942 million.

The jury has supplied the count. The statute supplies the $5,000 ceiling. The judge will determine how much of that ceiling becomes a judgment.