Tech Desk
Aug 16, 2024
Recently, T-Mobile, a German company that offers wireless telecom services, has been fined $60 million by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS) on alleged national security concerns.
According to Reuters, it is CFIUS’s largest penalty ever as the mobile carrier has failed to prevent and report unauthorised access to the country’s sensitive data.
This is not the first time T-Mobile has faced a controversy as previously the company was also accused of violating the Consumer Protection Law, New Jersey's Consumer Fraud Act, and the Pennsylvania Unfair Trade Practices Law by raising prices on its cell phone plans.
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However, now, the $60 million fine was imposed as T-Mobile violated the terms of a mitigation agreement it had entered into with the CFIUS as part of its acquisition of Sprint in 2020 and the company’s inactions violated the agreement.
It appears that T-Mobile has issued a statement acknowledging the issue but also explained that the unauthorised access to data occurred due to a technical issue during its post-acquisition integration with Sprint.
The carrier also disclosed that while the unauthorised access involved "information shared from a small number of law enforcement information requests," it emphasised that the data remained within the law enforcement community and the issue was promptly reported and addressed.
Notably, it is likely to be CFIUS’ largest penalty to date. The committee has taken this severe step to prevent future violations as it has been set up to oversee the national security implications of foreign business investments in the US.
