TracFone agrees to $23M settlement over FCC subsidy violation allegations

TracFone settlement overview: 

• Who: TracFone Wireless agreed to pay $23.5 million in fines over violations of Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules. 
• Why: TracFone admitted to apparent violations of FCC rules on Lifeline and/or Emergency Broadband Benefit programs; the company self-reported the apparent violations after it was acquired by Verizon.
• Where: The TracFone settlement came from the FCC’s Washington, D.C., bureau.

TracFone Wireless agreed to pay $23.5 million in fines as part of a settlement resolving an investigation into apparent violations of Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules related to the Lifeline and Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB) programs.

TracFone will pay a $17,487,000 civil penalty along with $6,013,000 to resolve a 2020 Notice of Apparent Liability for other Lifeline violations, the FCC said.

“Whether attributable to fraud or lax internal controls, or both, we will vigorously pursue allegations of misconduct that harms critical FCC programs designed to help those most in need of communications-related services,” FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief Loyaan A. Egal said in a statement. “This settlement sends a strong message that we are determined to protect the integrity of these programs.”

The FCC requires phone service to have been used in the past 30 days in order to qualify for the Lifeline claims. That is to ensure that public funds aren’t paying for unused service.

The investigation showed that TracFone was not properly determining customer usage and thus not following the regulations, the TracFone FCC announcement says.

TracFone’s system was counting phones that received an inbound text message during the 30 prior days as being active. The company also claimed to be supporting customers who were enrolled in both Lifeline and EBB even if one of the services wasn’t used during the prior 30 days.

TracFone agents used falsified tax docs, were paid commission against FCC rules, agency says

TracFone was found to have had 79 field enrollment agents being paid based on commission for how many customers were enrolled, which is a violation of FCC rules.

Field agents used falsified tax documents to enroll individuals for Lifeline and EBB, the TracFone FCC fine announcement said, which led to TracFone reimbursing the Universal Service Fund $22,654,154 for Lifeline from January 2019 through October 2021 and also paying back $17,880,598 in EBB funds.

TracFone Wireless agreed to pay $13.4 million earlier this year to settle claims it knowingly allowed ineligible customers to get free phones through a federal program for low-income people to get more enrollment and commission payments for itself.

Have you ever purchased a TracFone Wireless phone? Let us know in the comments.

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