FCC to Fine Hilton Hotels for Obstructing Wi-Fi Blocking Investigation

In November 2014, the Enforcement Bureau began a Wi-Fi blocking investigation of Hilton Worldwide Holdings, Inc. after receiving a complaint that the Hilton hotel in Anaheim (CA) blocked visitors’ personal Wi-Fi hotspots unless they paid the hotel a $500 fee for Hilton’s Wi-Fi. The Commission has also received complaints about other Hilton properties. To this day, however, Hilton has refused to comply with the Bureau’s Letter of Inquiry (LOI) ordering the Company to provide documents and information about its Wi-Fi management practices for all relevant Hilton properties. Instead, a Hilton subsidiary initially responded only for a single property, arguing that the scope of the Bureau’s investigation should be limited to Hilton’s activities at its Anaheim hotel. Those answers were incomplete and inadequate even for that one property. After repeated warnings that the Company’s response was inadequate, the Hilton subsidiary recently produced limited information regarding the Wi-Fi blocking systems utilized at a small number of additional Hilton properties and again failed to answer many of the questions in the LOI. We cannot and will not countenance such flouting of the FCC’s responsibility and authority.

Accordingly, we propose a penalty of $25,000 against Hilton for apparently willfully and repeatedly violating a Commission order by failing to respond to the Bureau’s LOI and obstructing the Bureau’s investigation into whether Hilton willfully interferes with consumer Wi-Fi devices in Hilton-brand hotel and resort properties across the United States. If this is not sufficient to secure Hilton’s compliance with the Bureau’s Wi-Fi blocking investigation, we are prepared to take further action in the future.