A jury in New Mexico ordered Meta to pay $25 billion after finding the company misled consumers about how it handled their personal data, according to a judge's order issued this week. The figure is one of the largest jury awards ever assessed against a technology company and surpasses many previous privacy-related settlements in the US.
The size of the award raises the stakes for Meta's legal strategy going forward. Large verdicts of this kind are frequently appealed and can be reduced on review, but the number itself signals how aggressively juries are now willing to penalize data-privacy practices that regulators have scrutinized for years.
What remains unresolved is whether Meta will appeal and, if so, how much of the $25 billion figure survives that process. The company has not yet detailed its response.