Supreme Court rules against AT&T, Verizon in location data fine case
▼ Summary
– The Supreme Court ruled 8-1 that the FCC’s process for fining AT&T and Verizon did not violate the Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial.
– The Court reversed a 5th Circuit decision that had overturned AT&T’s fine, resolving a split with the 2nd Circuit, which had upheld Verizon’s fine.
– The carriers were fined a total of $104 million by the FCC in 2024 for selling users’ real-time location data without consent, a practice revealed in 2018.
– Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that the carriers could have obtained a jury trial by refusing to pay the fines and waiting for government collection proceedings.
– The Court found the FCC’s forfeiture orders did not create a final obligation to pay, as the government still had to prove its case to a jury before collection.
The Supreme Court has ruled against AT&T and Verizon in their challenge to fines imposed for selling users’ real-time location data without consent. In an 8-1 decision issued today, the justices determined that the Federal Communications Commission’s penalty process did not violate the carriers’ Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial.
The case arose after the FCC fined the two telecom giants a combined $104 million in 2024 for violations first uncovered in 2018. AT&T successfully convinced the US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit to overturn its fine last year, while Verizon lost its challenge in the 2nd Circuit. The Supreme Court stepped in to resolve the conflicting rulings and reversed the 5th Circuit’s decision. Justice Clarence Thomas was the sole dissenter.
Carriers argued that the FCC’s administrative penalty system deprived them of a jury trial, as required by the Seventh Amendment. However, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority that the carriers could have secured a jury trial had they simply refused to pay the fines and waited for the government to attempt collection. Under the current framework, companies can either pay the fines and appeal through circuit courts, or withhold payment and force the government to seek enforcement, a process that ultimately guarantees a jury trial.
“The FCC’s forfeiture proceedings fit comfortably within” the Supreme Court’s Seventh Amendment precedents, Roberts explained. “The orders at issue did not settle the carriers’ legal obligations because, stated simply, they did not create an obligation to pay. And the orders did not reflect the ultimate determination of any fact because, before the carriers could have been made to pay, the Government was required to prove its case to a jury.”
AT&T and Verizon had already paid their fines before launching their legal challenges. The ruling now upholds the FCC’s authority to levy such penalties through its administrative process, closing a circuit split that had created uncertainty for future enforcement actions.
(Source: Ars Technica)
