AT&T and Verizon thought they could hide behind legal minutae against an embarrassing fine imposed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The U.S. legal system, however, was able to rise above these machinations, and has just delivered a resounding blow to the aspirations of AT&T and Verizon to a more lax regulatory environment, as well as claw back, at least temporarily, the punitive fine that they've already paid to the FCC.
The U.S. Supreme Court nullifies the basic argument put forth by AT&T and Verizon
Back in April 2024, the FCC imposed cumulative fines of nearly $200 million on various carriers for violating a provision of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which imposes a mandate on all telecommunications carriers to protect confidential customer data. In this case, the FCC believed that all penalized carriers had shared user location data with third parties without obtaining prior user consent.
The FCC fined AT&T $57 million, Verizon around $47 million, T-Mobile $80 million, and Sprint, which merged with T-Mobile in 2020, around $12 million.
AT&T and Verizon paid the fines assessed by the FCC, but also filed appeals that slowly worked their way through the U.S. courts. The core of those appeals centered on the purported violation of the Seventh Amendment rights of these carriers, as the FCC imposed punitive fines without giving these entities the right to a trial by jury.
For its part, the FCC continued to maintain that the imposed fines were not mandatory, and that subsequent enforcement action would have afforded all penalized carriers the right to a jury-based trial.
In its 8-to-1 judgement issued just hours ago, the U.S. Supreme Court has declared that the FCC's forfeiture orders are not binding until the Department of Justice (DOJ) files a lawsuit to enforce them. The ruling upholds the right of the FCC to impose fines on U.S. carriers, and dashes the hopes of AT&T and Verizon for a more lax regulatory environment.
About the author: Writing is my one incontrovertible passion. Over the past six years, he has authored over 2,200 distinct articles on financial and tech-related topics, spanning nearly 1 million words. And he has been a member of Wcctech mobile team since 2025. As an alumnus of the University of Toronto, Rotman Commerce Program, I bring nuance, in-depth knowledge, and a unique perspective to every topic that I cover. When I'm not writing, I'm traveling the world, exploring hidden confectionaries and restaurants as an aspiring food connoisseur.
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