AT&T says it will not ask SCOTUS to review the decision in FTC's lawsuit over misleading promises of mobile broadband speeds, will pursue settlement
Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica :
Context & Ripple Effects
This case has been an authority fight from the start: in 2016 a US appeals court dismissed the FTC's data-throttling lawsuit on the question of whether the agency can even sue AT&T, leaving only a possible FCC fine in play. By refusing to take that authority question to the Supreme Court, AT&T removes the last procedural off-ramp and puts the 2014 'unlimited' plan claims back on a path to a negotiated end.
First-order effects
- AT&T re-enters direct settlement talks with the FTC over allegations it misled customers about mobile broadband speeds on unlimited plans, instead of litigating to a final ruling.
- The FTC keeps enforcement leverage it would have lost had the Supreme Court taken the case and narrowed its jurisdiction over carriers.
Second-order effects
- A settled outcome likely pairs a payment with conduct or disclosure commitments for AT&T's unlimited-data marketing, setting the template rivals would be measured against.
- Other carriers facing similar 'unlimited' plan complaints lose the precedent value of a clean AT&T win at SCOTUS and face pressure to settle their own cases.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds — the FTC later also declined a Supreme Court bid in the Qualcomm case (abandoning its antitrust suit rather than appealing) — big telecom disputes resolve through negotiated payments like the eventual $60M settlement rather than high-court tests of the agency's authority boundary over common carriers.
The trend: Major US telecom enforcement cases are ending in FTC-negotiated settlements rather than Supreme Court fights over the agency's jurisdiction.