Skip to navigationSkip to main contentSkip to right columnADVERTISEMENTHillary RemyFri, August 21, 2026 at 1:00 AM GMT+2 5 min readBoth AT&T and Verizon sold their customers' real-time location data to aggregators who resold it to almost anyone willing to pay. Both got fined. Both fought back. One of them just ran out of road.On Aug. 17, the Supreme Court denied Verizon's petition to recover the $47 million it paid the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over the sale of customer location data, ending the carrier's effort without explanation, according to QZ.AT&T is in a different position. Its case took a different procedural path and it still has a live shot at recovering the $57 million it paid. That gap matters, and it didn't happen by accident.Verizon's FCC $47M location data fineThe fines go back to April 2024, when the FCC penalized four carriers a combined $196 million for selling customers' location data to aggregators without meaningful consent.T-Mobile was hit hardest at $80 million. AT&T paid $57 million. Verizon paid $47 million. Sprint paid $12 million.The carriers didn't just pay and move on. They paid under protest and went to court arguing the FCC's enforcement process violated their Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial.The agency, they said, acted as judge and jury by imposing penalties through an administrative process rather than taking them to court.More Verizon:Verizon shuts down longtime customer support option after layoffsVerizon makes drastic move as battle for customers intensifiesVerizon lands significant new deal with auto giantThe Supreme Court ruled 8-1 against the carriers on that argument in June. The majority held that the carriers weren't denied a jury trial because they could have refused to pay and forced the government to sue them, at which point they could have demanded a jury.Justice Clarence Thomas was the lone dissenter, writing that the carriers paid in good faith believing payment was mandatory and deserved to be made whole.After losing that argument, Verizon filed an additional petition arguing the FCC had mischaracterized the nature of its forfeiture order to induce payment, then changed its position before the Supreme Court. The justices denied that petition without comment.Verizon has no further options in this fight, according to The Next Web.Why AT&T still has a path to recover its $57MAT&T's case went through the Fifth Circuit rather than the Second Circuit, and that procedural difference is everything.The Fifth Circuit initially sided with AT&T and vacated the fine. The Supreme Court reversed that decision and sent the case back down. But in doing so, it left open the question of whether AT&T was misled into paying.Terms and Privacy PolicyEU DSA contactPrivacy & Cookie SettingsMore Info