The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld FCC fines against Verizon and AT&T in an 8-1 ruling, siding with the Trump administration and preserving one of the agency’s key enforcement tools.
Verizon and AT&T had appealed a combined $100 million in penalties after the FCC said they failed to safeguard customer location data. The companies argued the agency’s process was unconstitutional because it left them too little chance to tell their side before a jury, but Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority that the orders at issue did not create an obligation to pay.
The case matters beyond the two carriers because it tested the FCC’s ability to enforce data privacy rules against telecommunications companies. The administration defended the fines as an essential regulatory tool while also saying the companies did not have to pay them right away, a position that let it preserve the penalties without forcing immediate collection. Similar enforcement methods are used by other agencies, which means the decision could shape how federal regulators pursue penalties in other disputes as well.
Justice Clarence Thomas dissented, leaving the court’s conservative majority to define the result. The ruling does not say how the FCC will change its enforcement process, if it changes it at all, but it does remove a major legal challenge to how the agency has been policing carrier handling of sensitive customer data. For Verizon and AT&T, the fight over the fines has now been settled at the highest level, even if the broader questions about administrative power are not.
