Supreme Court Lets $47M FCC Fine Against Verizon Stand
In one line: The US Supreme Court rejected Verizon's request for a $47 million refund, leaving the FCC fine in place.
Key points
- The Supreme Court declined to hear Verizon's appeal, keeping the lower-court ruling and the FCC's $47 million penalty intact.
- The fine stems from sharing and selling customers' device-location data to third parties without proper consent.
- Even after losing, Verizon and other carriers maintain that selling location data is not itself illegal.
Why it matters
A top-court affirmation of penalties over carrier location-data sales raises compliance pressure on any company handling large volumes of personal data. As AI and data services increasingly train on and monetize location and behavioral data, this stands as a precedent for regulatory risk.