Data Privacy Carries a $25 Billion Price Tag for Meta

Jury verdict leaves Meta facing a $25 billion bill in New Mexico

Meta has been ordered to pay $25 billion to New Mexico over claims it deceived users about the handling of their data. Judge Francis Mathew calculated that state law supported a figure above $219 billion before settling on the lower sum. In his order, he wrote that the wrongdoing ran to the centre of how Facebook operates and was repeated publicly over a period of years.

The jury reached its verdict on 25 September, finding 26 of 29 statements by the company and its executives misleading and counting more than 43 million breaches of state consumer protection law. The count rests on how many residents saw each statement, and the law permits up to $5,000 for each one. Proceeds go to New Mexico’s schools.

The case dates to 2021, when the state sued over the harvesting of Facebook data by Cambridge Analytica. Meta argued in filings that it does not sell user data and that no consumer was shown to have been misled.

Analysts expect an appeal, and doubt the sum will dent a company valued near $2 trillion.

UN says the 1.5C window has closed, but the overshoot can be limited

The UN Environment Programme has told governments that the chance of holding temperature rises to 1.5C has gone, while arguing that how far and how long the world runs past that mark remains an open question. Emissions falling 18% by 2030 and 45% by 2035 would give a fair chance of stopping at 1.7C, a level that would leave recent record heat common but not far worse.

Its annual assessment of the gap between climate goals and actual policy finds countries converting long-range targets into near-term action too slowly. Emissions appear to have levelled off, with 2025 close to the year before, though the authors would not call it a peak given geopolitical uncertainty and continued fossil fuel use alongside rapid renewable growth.

Current pledges, if met in full, point to 2.6C. Current policies point to 2.8C. Johan Rockström of the Potsdam Institute put the arithmetic plainly: national commitments would leave annual emissions near 50 gigatonnes of CO2 equivalent by 2035, where the figure needs to sit below 35.

Inger Andersen, who runs the programme, said the effort required was not made, but that abandoning the target now would be the wrong response. Cutting methane is named as one route to slowing warming quickly.

Jackdaw approved, Rosebank in doubt as UK weighs two North Sea fields

Miatta Fahnbulleh approved the Jackdaw gasfield on Wednesday and is inclined to refuse Rosebank, sources told the Guardian, though no final decision has been taken. Her department called the report speculation and said each application is judged on its merits.

She drew a line between the two. Jackdaw supplies the domestic market, she said, and taking gas from relatively low-carbon North Sea sources beats importing it while the country moves towards net zero. Rosebank is an oilfield whose output would largely be exported, which she is understood to see as doing less for energy security. It would also emit around seven times the carbon of Jackdaw, itself expected to add an estimated 36 million tonnes.

Fahnbulleh conceded the Jackdaw decision would not bring bills down.

The outcome may not be hers. Andy Burnham is expected to settle any disagreement, with the chancellor anticipating oil and gas revenues for a new energy wealth fund, due £2 billion in the budget and earmarked for renewables and nuclear. A decision is expected before year-end.

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India’s food regulator questions health claims on children’s products

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India has issued notices to Nestlé India, Zydus Wellness, Abbott Healthcare and others over how products for infants and children are promoted, saying the claims breach its rules. Named products include Complan, Lactogen Pro 1 Powder, NAN Excella Pro Stage 1 and infant milk substitutes.

Nestlé India has been asked to produce evidence behind claims that two of its infant formula products support digestion and the immune system. The company said the regulator was restating concerns about labelling raised on 18 September, and that it had already filed a detailed reply.

Zydus Wellness must justify the marketing of Complan, a children’s drink sold on the promise of growing taller and faster with clinically proven double growth. The company did not respond outside office hours.

Notices also went to an influencer and to companies including Abbott and Nestlé India over an Instagram reel advertising infant milk substitutes. Abbott said it had no part in the content and learned of it only through the notice, and does not back the claims made in it.

The action follows a proposal last week to bar sucrose and fructose from foods for babies under six months, part of a wider push on labelling that unsettles a packaged food sector worth more than $100 billion.

Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed here by the authors are their own, not those of impakter.com — Cover Photo Credit: Julio Lopez