US Supreme Court rules against AT&T and Verizon over FCC location-data fines

The US Supreme Court has ruled, by 8 to 1, against AT&T and Verizon in their attempt to overturn fines imposed by the Federal Communications Commission for the sale of location data, citing their right to a jury trial. According to Ars Technica, the ruling is being seen as a strong reaffirmation of the FCC's administrative enforcement authority.

The background to the case is the total $196 million in fines that the FCC imposed in 2024 on AT&T and Verizon for selling location data. According to Ars Technica's account, the fines stem from a period in which the carriers transferred customer location data to third-party vendors, allowing call centres and data brokers to use those databases.

The argument the carriers brought to the Supreme Court rested on the Seventh Amendment of the US Constitution: that the size of the fine should be determined by a jury. Ars Technica reports that the majority of the Supreme Court rejected this argument and held that the FCC's authority to impose fines under federal administrative law did not violate the Seventh Amendment protection.

The author of the ruling, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, emphasised in the majority opinion that the authority of administrative agencies to impose penalties for specified violations is valid within the framework of federal administrative law when explicitly authorised by Congress. Ars Technica notes that this interpretation preserves a framework in which federal agencies can impose regulatory penalties through administrative process.

The lone dissent came from Justice Neil Gorsuch. Ars Technica's report says that in his dissent, Gorsuch argued that the administrative penalty practice of federal agencies limiting the right to a jury trial under the Seventh Amendment is at odds with the original interpretation of the US Constitution.

The ruling has wide implications for the sector. Ars Technica's account stresses that the legal obligations of telecom carriers on the sharing of location data return to the agenda and that the path is opened for the FCC's future regulatory actions. The ruling is seen as an important milestone for the effectiveness of administrative enforcement in the sector.

The events surrounding the case were recorded as one of the cornerstones of the consumer-privacy debate in the United States. Ars Technica notes that an investigative report published by Motherboard in 2018 revealed that location data was being transferred to third-party vendors for small fees. That report became the trigger for the regulatory review that the FCC launched.

The regulatory environment shaped by the case has also influenced the other major operators in the sector. Similar fines against the new T-Mobile following its merger with Sprint are also on the agenda. Ars Technica writes that the Supreme Court ruling will form the backdrop for the FCC's subsequent regulatory actions.

The clearing of the path for the FCC ruling is also a message about the political environment around preserving federal agencies' administrative enforcement authority. According to Ars Technica's account, the ruling can be read as a response to efforts that began during the Trump period to restrict federal agency authority, and it sets an important reference point in administrative-law doctrine.

In the short term, whether AT&T and Verizon will pay the fines or pursue a different legal route will become clearer in the carriers' statements in the coming weeks. Ars Technica stresses that the Supreme Court's ruling will shape the sectoral and doctrinal debates on the limits of federal administrative enforcement authority for years to come. The ruling will read as an important touchstone in the policymaking process around consumer-data protection in the United States.