The Supreme Court has just ruled that the FCC is able to levy fines against wireless carriers, here in the US. It was an 8-1 decision. The issue that was being argued in front of the highest court in the land was a legal dispute about whether the agency’s in-house proceedings for imposing the penalties deprived the companies of their right to a jury trial under the US Constitution.
The Trump Admin defended the FCC’s system for assessing financial penalties, which is also known as forfeiture orders.
Only Justice Clarence Thomas ruled against the decision.
This is just the latest legal dispute to test whether a federal agency’s internal enforcement arrangement violates the constitutional right to a jury trial after the Supreme Court in 2024 curbed the power of in-house proceedings at the SEC.
So far, the FCC has fined carriers nearly $200 million, in which it claims they failed to safeguard customer data. It fined T-Mobile $80 million and Spring $12 million. And more recently, it fined AT&T around $57 million and Verizon nearly $47 million, after it concluded that the companies had unlawfully sold access to customer location data to third parties with user consent.
The FCC’s ability to fine wireless carriers is huge
The FCC, or Federal Communications Commission, is basically the police for wireless carriers like Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile. They are what keep these carriers in line. And since they don’t really operate outside of the US, it’s not something the European Union could handle, as they do with Google, Meta, and other conglomerates.
While most people despise the FCC, they do have an important job in helping to protect consumers from these multi-billion dollar corporations. The FCC did say in their defense that the agency’s assessments were not binding, and that the government could bring an enforcement to court, where these companies can make their case before a jury.
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