T-Mobile and its Sprint subsidiary filed Petition for a Writ of Certiorari with the Supreme Court, urging the Court to vacate the FCC’s data breach forfeiture violations against them and remand the case in light of the Court’s recent AT&T decision about FCC authority to issue fines. In August, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (D.C. Circuit) upheld the forfeiture orders against T-Mobile and Sprint.
In their Petition, T-Mobile and Sprint asserted that the D.C. Circuit adopted an overly broad interpretation of Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI), effectively subjecting wireless carriers to common-carrier liability for mobile-device location information that falls outside the FCC’s statutory authority. The petitioners argued that the D.C. Circuit improperly deferred to the FCC’s interpretation of the Communications Act’s penalty cap by characterizing a single failure as multiple continuing violations for purposes of calculating penalties. They argue the D.C. Circuit’s deference to the FCC conflicts with Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and other Supreme Court decisions.
