WASHINGTON — The Washington Court of Appeals has affirmed a ruling upholding a nearly $25 million penalty against Meta for violating Washington’s Fair Campaign Practices Act.
In an opinion released today, the court upheld a 2022 decision that imposed a $24.6 million penalty on Meta, the parent company of Facebook, for failing to comply with the state’s campaign finance disclosure laws.
“More than 50 years ago, Washington state voters had the foresight to demand transparency in political spending,” said Allen Hayward, chair of the Public Disclosure Commission (PDC). “The appellate court agrees with the PDC that disclosure applies equally to modern forms of political advertising.”
The penalty, confirmed on Monday, is believed to be the largest ever imposed for campaign finance violations in U.S. history. In addition to the fine, the trial court had ordered Meta to pay $10.5 million in attorney’s fees and other costs.
“The plain language of the disclosure law evidences its intent to preserve and sunlight relevant data of each individual ad on Meta’s social media platforms, without any requirement that any particular voter or the government step into the sunlight to inspect the records,” the court opinion reads.
Meta had appealed a King County Superior Court ruling that found the company intentionally violated Washington’s campaign finance law more than 800 times. Douglass North, a current PDC commissioner, authored the opinion while serving as a King County Superior Court judge, before his retirement and appointment to the commission.
The law in question requires commercial advertisers—businesses selling political ads—to make information about those ads and their purchasers available for public inspection upon request. The lawsuit argued that Facebook sold hundreds of ads to Washington state political committees without disclosing the required information.
The PDC initially investigated the case and referred it to the Washington state Attorney General’s Office, which filed the lawsuit in 2020. The King County Superior Court awarded $8.22 million in civil penalties and $3.5 million in attorney fees and costs, later tripling both amounts after determining Meta’s violations were intentional.
