Terpin v. AT&T, the historic lawsuit that has been the benchmark for SIM swap litigation, will be remanded to US District Court in Los Angeles for trial after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously reversed the summary judgment of Justice Otis D. Wright II. The three-judge panel ruled that customer proprietary network information (CPNI), which is protected under the Federal Communications Act, may have been violated.
“Adopting AT&T’s constrained view of CPNI would lead to absurd results,” the Court wrote. “Our decision is also consistent with the FCC’s views. In a report addressing new proposed CPNI rules, the FCC recognized that SIM swap fraud ‘allows the bad actor to gain access to information associated with the customer’s account, including CPNI, and gives the bad actor control.’”
On March 8th, the appeal was argued by Terpin’s lead attorney, Pierce O’Donnell, senior partner at Greenberg Glusker. “This is a major precedential decision of national significance,” said O’Donnell. “Rejecting all of AT&T’s arguments, the Court of Appeal held that AT&T can be liable in damages under the Federal Communications Act when it allows a hacker to get into its system, access the customer’s AT&T account, and steal the customer’s private information or assets–in this case $24 million of cryptocurrency. The decision paves the way for our client to go to trial and hold AT&T accountable after more than six years of litigation. We look forward to asking a Los Angeles federal jury to award Mr. Terpin $24 million plus at least $14 million of interest plus his attorney’s fees for a total of at least $45 million.”
A Victory for Consumers
“This is not just a victory for me, but for thousands of innocent consumers who had their identity compromised, their safety and privacy breached, and in many cases their funds stolen due to lax and indifferent security practices by AT&T,” said Terpin. “Letting this summary judgment stand would have been a horrific precedent. I am grateful to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for their comprehensive analysis and just decision.”