Washington Court of Appeals affirms $25M judgment against Facebook for campaign finance violations

PDC investigation led to court ruling in 2022 that Meta, parent company of Facebook, was liable for violations

 The Washington Court of Appeals affirmed a 2022 ruling in an opinion released Dec. 2, upholding a $24.6 million penalty against Facebook parent Meta, Inc., for violating Washington’s Fair Campaign Practices Act.  

“More than 50 years ago, Washington state voters had the foresight to demand transparency in political spending,” said Public Disclosure Commission Chair Allen Hayward. “The appellate court agrees with the PDC that disclosure applies equally to modern forms of political advertising.” 

The penalty upheld today is believed to be the largest ever imposed for campaign finance violations in United States history. The trial court also 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 opinion reads. 

Meta had appealed the King County Superior Court ruling that it intentionally violated Washington’s campaign finance law more than 800 times. Current PDC Commissioner Douglass North wrote the opinion while serving as a King County Superior Court Judge, before his retirement from the bench and appointment to the Commission. 

The law in question requires commercial advertisers – businesses that sell political advertising – to make information about those ads and their purchasers available for the public to inspect upon request. The lawsuit argued that Facebook sold hundreds of ads to Washington state political committees without making that information available. 

The PDC originally investigated the case. The five-member Commission referred it to the Washington state Attorney General’s Office, which filed its lawsuit in 2020. King County Superior Court awarded $8,220,000 in civil penalties and $3.5 million in attorney fees and costs, then tripled both figures because Meta’s violations of state campaign finance law were found to be intentional.