Companies sold consumer’s location data to third-party vendors…
The U.S. Supreme Court handed a major data location privacy setback to the nation’s largest wireless carriers in its landmark decision Federal Communications Commission v. AT&T, Inc., ruling in an 8-1 decision that the regulatory agency maintains the authority to fine companies through its own administrative process. The decision rejects arguments from AT&T and Verizon that the regulatory agency’s enforcement system unconstitutionally deprived them of their right to a jury trial.
Location Business News has been covering these fines and the lawsuit for more than two years. During its investigation, which started during the first Trump administration, the FCC said that the four carriers sold customer location information, without consent, to “aggregators,” who resold the data to third-party location-based service providers. The federal agency cited public reports that indicated that a Missouri sheriff used location information, provided by Securus, to track “numerous individuals.”
Sprint and T-Mobile TMUS 0.00%↑, which merged since the investigation started, were hit the hardest with $12 million and $80 million fines, respectively. AT&T T 0.00%↑ was fined more than $57 million, while Verizon VZ 0.00%↑ was hit with a $47 million fine.
Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts clarified that an FCC forfeiture order does not inherently force an immediate payment obligation. Instead, if a telecommunications company refuses to pay the administrative penalty, the federal government must initiate a separate civil collection lawsuit in federal court. Because the carriers retain the opportunity to fully contest the penalties in front of a judge during that subsequent phase, the High Court concluded that the FCC’s in-house process does not violate the Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial.
