The FCC’s $365 Million Man

In his first year on the job as chief of the Federal Communications Commission's Enforcement Bureau, Travis LeBlanc has issued some of the largest fines in the agency's history. AT&T agreed to pay $105 million for placing unwanted charges on consumers' phone bills. T-Mobile had to pay $90 million over similar allegations. Marriott Hotels paid $600,000 for blocking its customers' Wi-Fi hotspots. And CenturyLink and Verizon got fined $16 million and $3.4 million, respectively, for a software glitch that blocked 911 calls for six hours. In total, the FCC, working with other agencies, has collected more than $365 million in fines, settlements, and refunds for consumers since LeBlanc took office in March 2014, according to a National Journal review of agency records.

LeBlanc is a new kind of enforcement chief for the FCC. Previous heads of the bureau have usually been career FCC lawyers, with extensive experience in telecommunications issues in other parts of the agency. They were used to working closely with companies, often negotiating with them as the FCC crafted regulations. But LeBlanc is a prosecutor, who has little interest in playing nice. He has already helped the FCC earn a tougher reputation on enforcement, and his role will only grow under the agency's controversial net neutrality rules, which will empower him to review complaints and launch investigations into a range of disputes over Internet access. LeBlanc described his philosophy as a "public-health" approach to enforcement by focusing on prevention rather than just addressing problems after they have occurred. He has issued public advisories to get companies in line without having to issue any fines. When he does crack down on a company, he says he tries to pick the worst offender to send a message to the rest of the industry and to pick cases that will matter to the most number of consumers.