Washington state Supreme Court affirms $25M judgment against Facebook for campaign finance violations

Public Disclosure Commission investigation led to Attorney General’s lawsuit

The Washington state Supreme Court issued a ruling today upholding both a 2022 King County Superior Court ruling that Meta, parent company of Facebook, violated state campaign finance law on dozens of occasions and a judgment ordering $24.6 million in fines plus attorney’s fees.

The penalty is believed to be the largest ever imposed for campaign finance violations in United States history.

“Washington state law requires all commercial advertisers – from Mom-and-Pop print shops to the largest companies in the world – to promptly disclose information related to the purchase of political advertisements,” said Executive Director Peter Frey Lavallee. “The state Supreme Court has affirmed that Meta must follow the law.”

The Washington state Court of Appeals previously affirmed the judgment in December 2024. Meta appealed the decision to the state Supreme Court.

Meta asked the court to consider both the company’s liability for the violations and the size of the penalty. The majority of the court affirmed the previous courts’ rulings that Meta is liable for the violations of state law. The court was divided in three even parts on the issue of the penalty, resulting in the original court’s judgment being affirmed.

The PDC investigation began after the agency received complaints against Facebook. Agency staff presented its initial findings to the five-member Commission, which voted to refer the matter to the Washington state Attorney General’s Office. 

The AGO filed a lawsuit with broader allegations beyond the PDC complaints against Facebook in 2020.

Two years later, the King County Superior Court awarded $8,220,000 in civil penalties and $3.5 million in attorney fees and costs, then tripled both figures per state law, because Meta’s violations of state campaign finance requirements were found to be intentional. Current Commission Vice Chair Douglass North was the presiding judge in the original case, prior to his appointment to the PDC.

Commercial advertisers – businesses that sell political advertising – are required by Washington public disclosure law 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 required information available.