A New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay $25 billion in penalties Wednesday after a jury found in September that the social media giant misled users about their data privacy.

Why it matters: The penalties come nearly a decade after the Cambridge Analytica scandal first broke and signal that Big Tech can face significant financial consequences for misleading users about their privacy.

Driving the news: Judge Francis Mathew determined the penalty amount Wednesday, handing New Mexico a win as the only state to take its claims to trial after 48 others settled.

Mathew concluded New Mexico was entitled to $219.5 billion based on the state's maximum $5,000 penalty multiplied by 43,899,720 violations. He reduced that to $25 billion.

Meta did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment.…