Meta fined $24.6M for WA campaign finance violations
A King County judge ordered Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. (Nasdaq: META) to pay the maximum penalty for violations of Washington state's campaign finance laws.
The $24.6 million fine is "the largest campaign finance penalty anywhere in the country — ever," state Attorney General Bob Ferguson said in tweet.
The order comes less than a month after the judge ruled the Silicon Valley-based tech giant violated state campaign finance laws intentionally and repeatedly.
King County Superior Court Judge Douglass North ruled in early October that Meta had flouted the state's 50-year-old Fair Campaign Practices Act 822 times after it had already been sued by Ferguson in 2018 for alleged campaign finance violations and reached a $238,500 settlement. The suit North ruled on this month was one Ferguson filed in 2020.
Washington's voter-passed campaign finance law is unique among the 50 states and demands heightened transparency. Companies that run ads are required to maintain financial records and release them to requesters in a timely manner. That financial information includes cost of the ad, the sponsor and paying advertiser. A violation is committed each time requested information isn't disclosed.
https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2022/10/26/judge-orders-meta-to-pay.html
