SCOTUS Rules Against AT&T, Verizon Over Fines For Selling Location Data

He noted that federal officials acknowledged FCC penalty orders are not self-executing nonbinding sans a jury trial.

“It seems like you’ve won on the law going forward, one way or the other,” Kavanaugh told the attorney representing the carriers, per ARSTechnica.

John Bergmayer, legal director at advocacy group Public Knowledge, hailed the ruling.

“The Supreme Court got this one right,” Bergmayer said in a press release.

“AT&T and Verizon sold access to their customers’ location data, then failed to stop bounty hunters and even a rogue sheriff from using it to track people who had no idea they were being followed,” he added.

“The FCC investigated, found the carriers liable, and proposed penalties—which the carriers were always free to challenge in court,” he said, noting further: “This decision keeps the FCC able to do the job Congress gave it.”