Alert 12.31.25
Alert
01.16.26
On January 8, 2026, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced the resolution of a first-of-its-kind enforcement action targeting Marlink Inc. (Marlink) for violations of its international section 214 and earth station authorizations (Authorizations), which had been conditioned on compliance with commitments and undertakings in a 2022 Letter of Agreement (LOA) with the Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the U.S. Telecommunications Service Sector (Team Telecom). Following a referral from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the FCC Enforcement Bureau uncovered a continuing failure to comply with commitments to restrict foreign employee access to U.S. customer information and communications infrastructure (U.S. Records), absent prior approval from the DOJ. The FCC and Marlink entered into a consent decree, including monetary forfeiture, compliance plan, and revision of internal controls, to resolve the violation of FCC rules.
Enforcement Action
In 2022, the FCC approved a transfer of control of Marlink’s international section 214 authorization and earth station licenses from Apax Partners SAS to PS8 1 Holdings S.a.r.l. The grant followed a Team Telecom review of the transaction and was issued subject to the terms of the LOA, including strict controls on foreign-employee access to U.S. Records, which would require prior notification to DOJ before any access could be permitted.
In May 2024, Marlink notified DOJ of its intention to grant several foreign employees access to the U.S. Records. The request led DOJ to inquire whether Marlink previously failed to notify the department of foreign employees receiving access during the intervening years, and referred the question to the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau for further investigation. Following the inquiry, the FCC concluded that, due to inadequate screening procedures and until the commencement of the FCC inquiry, Marlink failed to submit at least 186 foreign employees for timely DOJ vetting prior to granting access to U.S. Records.
To resolve the investigation, Marlink agreed to the terms of a settlement agreement that combined a monetary payment with a prescriptive 36-month-compliance program (Consent Decree). Marlink agreed to pay a $175,000 voluntary contribution to the U.S. Department of the Treasury within 30 calendar days of the effective date of the Consent Decree, and to implement revised procedures and controls on foreign-employee access.
Background on Team Telecom
The FCC may refer certain applications raising questions of national security and law enforcement risks associated with reportable foreign ownership (interests of ten percent or greater) to Executive Branch departments and agencies, including DOJ (as chair), the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Department of War, among others. This procedure, while initially ad hoc, was formalized in 2020 with the publication of Executive Order 13913. Following a Team Telecom review, an applicant may enter into a mitigation agreement, such as an LOA, to resolve any identified potential national security risks. Once an agreement has been reached, Team Telecom will typically notify the FCC of its non-objection to the application, subject to the FCC approval being conditioned on compliance with the mitigation agreement. This can be seen in National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s petition to adopt conditions in the Marlink 2021 transfer of control application.
Takeaways
FCC applicants and licensees are reminded that Team Telecom mitigation agreement obligations are binding commitments and core licensing conditions that must be operationalized with the same discipline and diligence as other FCC requirements. Failure to comply with such commitments can: (1) constitute a failure to meet a condition of the grant; (2) provide grounds for declaring the authorization terminated without further action; and (3) result in monetary sanctions or other enforcement action. While this is the FCC’s first enforcement of Team Telecom mitigation agreement violations, the FCC has made clear that the settlement “sets a strong precedent” that Team Telecom mitigation commitments will be enforced for the protection of American national security.