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  "description": "The decision sets up a split with the Fifth Circuit.",
  "path": "/judges-uphold-92-million-fine-against-t-mobile/",
  "publishedAt": "2025-08-15T18:13:43.000Z",
  "site": "https://broadbandbreakfast.com",
  "tags": [
    "_was invalid_",
    "_****There's a whole community behind your FREE membership...****_",
    "Join the Community!",
    "_FCC said_",
    "_wrote Friday_",
    "_agency is defending_",
    "_responded_"
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  "textContent": "WASHINGTON, August 15, 2025 – Federal judges in D.C. upheld Friday a $92 million fine against T-Mobile, and in doing so ruled the Federal Communications Commission’s forfeiture process did not violate companies’ right to a jury trial.\n\nIt sets up a split with the Fifth Circuit, where judges in April found the process _was invalid_ under recent Supreme Court precedent.\n\nThe FCC fined the three major mobile carriers last year nearly $200 million for not vetting third parties before selling them customer location data in 2018. T-Mobile was hit with an $80 million fine, plus a $12.2 million fine intended for Sprint, which T-Mobile acquired in 2020.\n\n\n\n_****There's a whole community behind your FREE membership...****_\n\n Join the Community! \n\nAll three carriers challenged the fines in court, arguing the penalties violated their Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial. The Supreme Court held last summer in _Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy_ the SEC couldn’t levy civil penalties without a jury trial.\n\nThe FCC’s process allows companies to get a jury trial, but only if they choose not to pay and wait for the Department of Justice to pursue a collection action. The companies instead opted to pay the fines, giving them the chance to appeal the penalties in court.\n\nAs the other carriers did, T-Mobile argued that didn’t cut it under _Jarkesy_ , while the _FCC said_ the companies had adequate access to a jury trial and simply chose to forego one. The three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit agreed with the agency.\n\n“The Carriers had the right to a jury trial. They chose not to wait for such a trial and therefore waived that right,” Circuit Judge **Florence Pan** _wrote Friday_. “The Carriers may not now complain that they were denied a right they voluntarily surrendered.”\n\nThe Fifth Circuit, which heard AT&T’s challenge to its $57 million fine, ruled the opposite way. Judges cited precedent in the circuit that they said would limit AT&T’s ability to appeal legal issues if the DOJ ultimately brought a case there.\n\nThe split makes it likely one of the parties will ask the Supreme Court to weigh in, **Andrew Jay Schwartzman** , senior counselor for the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, said in an email. He said they would probably wait for Verizon’s case to be resolved before doing so.\n\n“But so long as the Circuits remain split, one or both sides are quite likely to seek Supreme Court review,” he said.\n\nT-Mobile said it was reviewing the decision and didn’t have a comment. The FCC did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did CTIA, the major wireless industry group.\n\nFCC Chairman **Brendan Carr** , a commissioner at the time, dissented from the fines when they were handed down, which happened before the _Jarkesy_ decision, and has called for the agency to review its enforcement rules in the wake of _Jarkesy_.\n\nBut under his leadership, the _agency is defending_ its ability to issue fines. The FCC asked the Fifth Circuit last month to rehear the AT&T case with a full panel of judges.\n\n“Civil penalties are among the Commission’s most important regulatory remedies,” the agency wrote. “If the panel’s decision stands, the validity of every Commission enforcement action that seeks to impose a monetary penalty under that provision is likely to be challenged.”\n\nAT&T _responded_ to the request Thursday, saying the court decided correctly the first time and should not rehear the case.",
  "title": "Judges Uphold $92 Million Fine Against T-Mobile",
  "updatedAt": "2026-03-11T05:47:27.506Z"
}