Meta Gets Bulk Discount on Its 43 Million Lies

LAS CRUCES, N.M. — Bargain hunters across New Mexico are calling it the deal of the decade after a state judge found that Meta Platforms owed $219 billion for more than 43 million lies to Facebook users, then rang the whole order up at $25 billion.

That works out to about $581 per lie, an 88% markdown from the $5,000 sticker price set by state law.

“You buy one lie, you pay full price. You buy 43 million, somebody goes and gets the manager,” said Rhonda Pricegun, 63, who has run a closeout store off U.S. 70 for 31 years and once sold 9,000 left-handed oven mitts to a single Methodist church. “I don’t give 88% off on Easter candy in June.”

Judge Francis Mathew wrote that the misstatements were “clearly intentional and systemic,” which Pricegun said is exactly what qualifies a customer for wholesale pricing. “Systemic is a frequent shopper,” she said. “Intentional is a frequent shopper with a membership card.”

Meta says it will appeal. The company’s top lawyer, CJ Mahoney, said the ruling made it “all but impossible to do business in the state of New Mexico,” a line Pricegun said she hears weekly from customers holding expired coupons. She advised the company to ask whether the discount stacks with the $5 billion it paid the Federal Trade Commission in 2019 over the same scandal. “That’s a coupon,” she said. “And they kept the receipt.”

The penalty carries 15% annual interest until paid, which Pricegun called “store credit card terms.”

Reached for comment late Wednesday, Pricegun had already taped a new sign above her register: “Lies, 43 Million Minimum. Ask About Our Appeals Program.” She expects repeat business. “Customers who buy that many always come back.”