by Chip Yorkgitis

While no one is likely to bemoan the Federal Communications
Commission's May 30, 2023, Memorandum Opinion and Order (MO&O) to
vacate the 2015 Forfeiture Policy Statement that had adopted a
methodology of treble damages for violations of rules requiring
payments to the Federal Universal Service Fund (USF), other funds
applicable to common carriers, annual FCC regulatory fees, some
semblance of certainty of maximum penalties may have been lost. The
Commission going forward will apply its discretion to determine
forfeitures based on a review of statutory and rule-based factors, the
Commission's 1997 Forfeiture Guidelines, and "the individualized
circumstances of each future adjudication." In effect, this is what
the FCC has been doing since it, according to the MO&O, has not
actually applied the "treble damages" limit in the past eight years in
any adjudication.

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