Vercel Admits Fault in FBI Warrant Response, Avoids Contempt Charges
Cloud platform Vercel will avoid contempt penalties after admitting it mishandled an FBI warrant request. The company failed to fully comply with a federal search warrant issued in August 2025 due to an account being in its deletion queue, leading to partial data handover. Vercel has since updated its practices.
Key points
- Vercel, a cloud hosting provider, faced a civil contempt case from the US government for failing to fully comply with an FBI search warrant.
- The warrant, issued in August 2025 for an unidentified user's account, was partially unfulfilled because the account was in Vercel's data deletion queue.
- Vercel initially believed the data had been deleted, but it was still awaiting permanent erasure when the warrant was served.
- A magistrate judge found a case for civil contempt, but Vercel handed over all requested data days later, leading to a stipulated dismissal.
- Vercel has reformed its data retention and warrant response procedures following the incident.
Cloud hosting provider Vercel has reached an agreement to avoid civil penalties in a contempt of court case initiated by the US government. The legal dispute arose from Vercel's response to a federal search warrant issued in August 2025 at the FBI's request, which targeted an account belonging to an unidentified individual.
At the core of the issue was Vercel's deletion queue system, designed to permanently remove user data. The company's system had placed the targeted account into this queue, and Vercel's internal processes mistakenly indicated the data had already been purged. Consequently, when the warrant was executed, Vercel only provided a portion of the requested information, falling short of full compliance.
Following a hearing on February 2, where a magistrate judge acknowledged a prima facie case for civil contempt, Vercel submitted all previously unlocated files to the Justice Department just three days later. This action led to the US government agreeing to a stipulated dismissal of the contempt case. Vercel has since stated it has overhauled its data retention and warrant compliance practices.
Sources
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