The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has reversed a U.S. District Court ruling dismissing a False Claims Act case filed against Dish Network Corp., Northstar Wireless LLC, and SNR Wireless LicenseCo LLC to recover $3.3 billion in AWS-3 auction bidding credits that Northstar and SNR sought from the FCC. The D.C. Circuit disagreed with the District Court arguing that Vermont National Telephone Co., who had initiated the suit in 2015 after seeking bidding credits but not winning any licenses, did allege false claims that are actionable under the False Claims Act by claiming that Northstar and SNR knowingly failed to disclose all of their understandings and Dish falsely certified that they had disclosed all of their understandings relevant to their claimed bidding credits.
