Verizon refund bid for $46.9M FCC fine rejected by US court

TL;DR: The US Supreme Court on 17 August rejected Verizon Communications' request to revise its 4 June ruling so the operator could pursue recovery of a $46.9 million Federal Communications Commission (FCC) penalty tied to location-data privacy violations.

The US Supreme Court on 17 August rejected Verizon Communications' request to add language to its 4 June opinion that would have directed the case back to the Second US Circuit Court of Appeals. Verizon wanted that step so it could argue it was misled into paying the FCC's $46.9 million forfeiture order and should be reimbursed.

The Supreme Court's June ruling held that telecom operators cannot immediately demand a jury trial when they receive an FCC forfeiture order because those orders are preliminary rather than final. A footnote in that opinion said the court was not deciding whether the specific orders sent to Verizon and AT&T misled them into paying or whether a refund might be warranted.

The dispute began with a 2020 FCC investigation that found AT&T, Verizon and other operators sold access to customers' location data to aggregators without adequate safeguards against unauthorised disclosure. In 2024, the FCC issued forfeiture orders assessing Verizon at about $46.9 million and AT&T at $57 million, with both operators told payment was due within 30 days.

AT&T was not affected by the 17 August action because its case followed a different path through the Fifth Circuit. That ruling was reversed and remanded for further proceedings, which preserves AT&T's ability to seek reimbursement there, while Verizon's refund effort is left without a clear route after the Second Circuit decision was affirmed rather than remanded.

Related questions

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