To put this into perspective:
$100MM is 0.0759878% of AT&T's 2014 gross revenue, so less than 1/10th of 1%.
That's like earning a $100,000/yr salary, and then paying a $75.99 fine. It's basically less than your average speeding ticket.
$100MM is 0.0759878% of AT&T's 2014 gross revenue, so less than 1/10th of 1%.
That's like earning a $100,000/yr salary, and then paying a $75.99 fine. It's basically less than your average speeding ticket.
Fines are not about killing the company, they are about penalizing certain decisions made by the company to affect change in policies.
There were far more than 50 million wireless subscribers on AT&T during this period, myself being one of them. The damages to me were far greater than $2 during the period after this change occurred, not to mention the $350 I paid to get out of my renewed contract after realizing how useless my data plan was, in order to get my work done when I was on the move. Even if there were only 10 million customers on the unlimited plan and each customer was impacted in a manner that could be monetarily valued at $50 over a period of many years, that would amount to $500MM in damages.
The killing part comes next when this FCC decision holds up in a superior court, providing the common law grounds for a class-action lawsuit. That will be many hundreds of millions of dollars, and that's the real reason AT&T will appeal this.
This will be fun.
Most (all?) ATT customers have undoubtedly agreed to an updated terms of service contract that contains the "In order to use our Services, you agree to waive your right to trial by jury and class action suit, and agree to use only binding arbitration to settle your disputes with us." language[0] that every company was adding to their contracts after AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion.
[0] AKA: A binding arbitration clause.
[1] http://caselaw.findlaw.com/ca-court-of-appeal/1258748.html
Which is completely irrelevant. To the extent a revenue comparison is relevant, the relevant revenue isn't AT&T's 2014 gross revenue, its the revenue over the period of the activities covered by the fine attributable either to the unlimited data plans, or to other data plans to which people switch from unlimited plans once the slowdown was in place.
If I cheat by committing a crime this year that saves me money, then continue earning more money each year from here out, all while squashing competitors, is the advantage I gained by cheating this year no longer relevant in 5 years?
5 years from now if AT&T resorts to this practice, you can bet the FCC et al will have no problems levying a much more severe consequence.
Then multiply this difference in value provided by some number greater than 1.
But consumers are unlikely to receive any money from the fine,
which will go instead to the U.S. Treasury, said the agency official.
"Aren't you glad we are here to protect you?"
Customers/Citizens are at the receiving end from all sides.
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_forfeiture_in_the_United...
"A million bucks? They'll fine me well--a minute's income shot to hell."