New Mexico judge orders Meta to pay $567 million into child-harms abatement fund after jury finding under Unfair Practices Act

A New Mexico judge has ordered Meta to pay $567 million into an abatement fund after a jury ruled the company violated the state’s Unfair Practices Act in a case involving alleged harms to children, according to CNBC.

CNBC reported that the order requires Meta to make the payment into the abatement fund as a remedy following the jury’s liability finding. The abatement fund is intended to support measures that address the harms at issue in the case, rather than distributing damages directly to individual class or claimants, the report said.

The judge’s decision comes after the jury found that Meta’s conduct violated New Mexico’s Unfair Practices Act. CNBC characterized the case as a “child harms” matter, with the court’s remedy tailored to the alleged conduct and its effects on minors.

The order sets a high-dollar financial obligation for Meta in New Mexico tied to a statutory consumer protection claim. While the details of the jury’s specific findings and the underlying allegations are not spelled out in the available summary, the court’s action underscores that the state will pursue enforcement tools that can produce substantial monetary remedies under unfair practices statutes.

Meta has been ordered to pay the amount into the abatement fund, but it remains for subsequent court steps to determine how the remedy will be administered and whether further proceedings could affect the final outcome. As with other post-trial remedies, questions about timing, implementation, and any further appeal would typically follow once a court issues an order of this type.

The ruling is likely to be closely watched beyond New Mexico because it indicates that state consumer protection frameworks can be used to seek large remedies in cases centered on alleged harms to children tied to online services and advertising practices, CNBC reported.