Just last month, the Federal Communications Commission slapped AT&T with a $100 million fine. According to 9to5mac, AT&T "imposed caps on unlimited data contracts, beyond which it reduced their data speeds by almost 90 percent."
The FCC ruled that the company didn't let customers know about capping its data services. Now, AT&T wants to reduce the $100 million fine to a measly $16,000.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said that AT&T failure to promulgate its conditions was "misleading," additionally noting that the company "deceived" its customers with "insufficient disclosure."
The Hill quoted AT&T's statement in its filing:
"The Commission's findings that consumers and competition were harmed are devoid of factual support and wholly implausible. Its 'moderate' forfeiture penalty of $100 million is plucked out of thin air, and the injunctive sanctions it proposes are beyond the Commission's authority."
However, the FCC claims that it indeed has authority to fine the telecommunications company. Slash Gear notes that the FCC's authority to do so was "because of a 2010 net neutrality order's 'transparency' provision under which companies must - in a proper manner - disclose to customers things related to network management."
AT&T refuted this statement in its filing as well. It reads:
"Under any lawful mode of analysis, the fact that AT&T complied with the Transparency Rule's requirements by posting an online disclosure containing the information on the Commission required should end this case. AT&T, however, went well beyond the Rule's requirements and directly notified all users affected by the MBR policy in numerous additional ways."
The Federal Trade Commission also cited that it legally had the authority to impose fines of $16,000 for each customer that was affected by data throttling. However, the amount would result in an "astronomic" fine.
This then led the FTC to limit the fine to one amount -- $100 million -- that was big enough to prevent further violations in the future.
