A New Mexico state-court jury found Meta Platforms, Inc. liable for willfully violating the state's Unfair Practices Act by misleading consumers about the safety of its platforms for children, returning a verdict of $375 million in civil penalties on March 24, 2026 [1][2]. The State of New Mexico filed suit alleging that Meta knowingly deceived parents and users about the risks its platforms posed to minors, and the claims survived to trial in the First Judicial District Court in Santa Fe [1]. The penalty figure reflects the statutory maximum of $5,000 per violation under the Unfair Practices Act [1][2].
At trial, the State argued that Meta made affirmative misrepresentations about child safety while internal company practices failed to match those public assurances [2]. The jury found the violations willful, a predicate required under New Mexico law to support the per-violation civil penalty structure that produced the nine-figure total [1]. Linda Singer of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll served as lead counsel for the State [1].
With a jury verdict in hand, the State's judgment is subject to post-trial motion practice before the First Judicial District Court, and Meta is expected to pursue appeal through the New Mexico Court of Appeals [2]. The $375 million award is not subject to reduction by a punitive-compensatory ratio analysis because it consists entirely of statutory civil penalties rather than common-law punitive damages [1]. The verdict does not include a separate compensatory component.
New Mexico is the first state to obtain a jury verdict against a major technology company on claims tied to child safety on social media platforms, a posture that state attorneys general in other jurisdictions have noted as a potential procedural model [1][2]. Dozens of similar actions are pending in state and federal courts nationally, and the verdict puts other platforms on notice that state consumer-protection statutes can reach platform-design and safety-representation claims at trial [2].