375 million dollar fine

Facebook Group loses high-profile trial over the safety of young users

Potentially momentous US trial over the addictive potential of social media: Facebook founder and meta-CEO Mark Zuckerberg after his testimony in a Los Angeles courtroom, in which he defended his company's approach. (February 18, 2026)

Image: Keystone/AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes

Meta is the target of many lawsuits. Has enough been done to protect users? The Facebook group loses an initial trial on this question. But it wants to appeal.

DPA

25.03.2026, 06:09•25.03.2026, 06:16

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Meta has suffered a defeat in a high-profile legal dispute in the USA.
A jury in the US state of New Mexico has found that the Facebook parent company committed serious breaches of consumer protection law when dealing with children on its social media platforms.
The jury found thousands of violations to be proven, which together amounted to a fine of 375 million euros.

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The Facebook group Meta has been fined 375 million dollars because, according to a US jury, the company did not do enough to protect young users against its better judgment. According to the financial service Bloomberg, the jury at a court in Santa Fe ruled that Meta had violated two consumer protection laws in the state of New Mexico.

Meta announced that it would appeal against the ruling. The company does not agree with the decision and is working hard to protect users, a company spokesperson explained.

In addition to Facebook, Meta also owns Instagram and WhatsApp.

Series of lawsuits

The ruling in New Mexico is the first in a series of lawsuits against Meta and other online platforms. In Los Angeles, the jury is currently deliberating in a trial in which a young woman is accusing Meta and the Google subsidiary YouTube of deliberately designing their services to addict users.

The lawsuit in New Mexico was filed in 2023 by the state's Attorney General, Raúl Torrez. The allegation was that the company put profits above user safety and concealed risks from young users and their parents. The lawsuit was partly based on investigations in which Torrez's employees posed as children on Facebook and Meta's photo and video platform Instagram and were subjected to harassment.