Supreme Court upholds FCC's authority to fine AT&T, Verizon

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the Federal Communications Commission’s process for imposing fines on telecommunications companies does not violate the constitutional right to a jury trial. In an 8-1 decision, the justices upheld the agency’s authority to issue multimillion-dollar penalties through its internal enforcement system.

The case stemmed from FCC actions against AT&T and Verizon for allegedly sharing customer location data with third parties without proper user consent, which regulators said violated federal privacy laws. The FCC imposed a $57 million fine on AT&T and a nearly $47 million fine on Verizon, part of a broader set of penalties totaling nearly $200 million against several carriers.

The companies challenged the fines, arguing that the FCC’s in-house proceedings deprived them of their Seventh Amendment rights by allowing the agency to act as both investigator and adjudicator without a jury. While both companies paid the assessed penalties, they pursued legal appeals, resulting in conflicting rulings from lower courts. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the FCC in Verizon’s case, while the Fifth Circuit ruled in favor of AT&T, prompting...