The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (Second Circuit) has affirmed a 2024 FCC fine of nearly $47 million against Verizon Communications, Inc. (Verizon), for providing to third parties access to customers’ location information without their consent. The FCC imposed the forfeiture due to Verizon’s purported failure to reasonably safeguard a category of statutorily protected information known as customer proprietary network information (CPNI). The Second Circuit was the second court to rule in favor of the FCC and against wireless carriers. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit recently affirmed 2024 FCC fines of $80 million and more than $12 million against T-Mobile and Sprint, respectively, for providing to third parties access to customers’ location information without their consent. In April, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit vacated a Commission forfeiture order fining AT&T more than $57 million for violating CPNI protections.
