Under federal law, GPS jamming is illegal in every state. The GPS jamming laws in the United States, rooted in the Communications Act of 1934, ban the use, sale, import, marketing, and distribution of any device designed to interfere with GPS signals, and the FCC enforces the ban with civil forfeitures reaching $25,132 per violation for individuals and criminal penalties of up to a year in prison for a first offense.1The Communications Act of 1934
What the Law Prohibits
Two provisions of the Communications Act do the heavy lifting. Section 301 makes it illegal to operate any radio transmitting device without an FCC license or authorization. A GPS jammer is an unlicensed transmitter putting noise on protected frequencies, so switching one on breaks this rule the moment it powers up.
Section 333 adds a second, independent offense: willfully or maliciously interfering with any radio communication of a station licensed or authorized under federal law, including U.S. government transmitters. GPS satellites are government-operated, so jamming their signals violates Section 333 regardless of why the user did it. Wanting privacy from an employer’s tracking system is not a defense. The transmission itself is the violation.
The prohibition reaches far beyond flipping a switch. Section 302(a) gives the FCC authority over any device that emits radio-frequency energy capable of causing harmful interference, and the implementing regulation at 47 C.F.R. § 2.803 makes it illegal to manufacture, import, market, sell, or offer for sale any signal jammer inside the United States. Advertising a jammer on a website, listing one on an online marketplace, and shipping one through international mail to a domestic buyer each count as separate, enforceable violations. Customs and Border Protection actively seizes jamming devices at the border; in one 2025 seizure, CBP confiscated anti-drone jamming units valued at $10,000 under both the customs statute at 19 U.S.C. § 1595a and the Communications Act.
Penalties for Using or Selling a Jammer
FCC enforcement is primarily civil. Under the inflation adjustment effective January 2025, an individual jammer user faces a maximum forfeiture of $25,132 per violation, or per day of a continuing violation, with an aggregate cap of $188,491 for a single act or course of conduct. The actual fine is calculated using adjustment factors that raise or lower the number based on how severe the interference was, whether the conduct was deliberate, and whether the person cooperated.
For manufacturers, importers, and common carriers, the ceiling is much higher: up to $251,322 per violation, with an aggregate cap above $2.5 million. Those numbers are how the FCC arrived at a proposed $34.9 million forfeiture against C.T.S. Technology Co. for marketing 285 different jammer models to U.S. buyers. Each model, each marketing act, counted separately.
Equipment forfeiture is a separate consequence. Under 47 U.S.C. § 510, the government can seize and permanently forfeit any device used with knowing intent to violate the transmission or equipment rules. The Attorney General pursues seizure in federal court, and forfeited equipment is either transferred to the FCC or sold, with proceeds going to the Treasury.
Criminal prosecution is available for knowing, willful violations. Under 47 U.S.C. § 501, a first offense carries a fine of up to $10,000, up to one year in prison, or both. A second offense under the same section carries up to $10,000 and up to two years in prison. The much larger dollar amounts you see in FCC press releases are civil forfeitures, not criminal fines. Criminal charges require the Department of Justice to prosecute, which happens less often than civil enforcement but remains a real risk for repeat offenders and cases with serious safety consequences.
How Jammer Users Get Caught
Most enforcement cases start the same way: the jammer disrupts something important nearby, and someone reports it. The clearest illustration is the New Jersey trucker case. Gary Bojczak installed a GPS jammer in his company truck to keep his employer from tracking him. His daily route ran past Newark Liberty International Airport, and his jammer repeatedly disrupted the airport’s Ground-Based Augmentation System, a precision landing aid then in pre-deployment testing. The FAA spent months chasing the intermittent failures before investigators traced them to his truck. The FCC proposed a $31,875 forfeiture, with upward adjustments for endangering aeronautical safety and a downward adjustment because he voluntarily surrendered the device. His theoretical maximum was $112,500.
In a separate action, the FCC imposed a $22,000 forfeiture against Ravi’s Import Warehouse for operating a jammer without authorization: $10,000 for unlicensed operation, $7,000 for causing interference, and a $5,000 upward adjustment for egregious conduct.
The lesson from both cases is the same. A jammer’s interference zone doesn’t respect walls or property lines, and it doesn’t take much power to knock out neighboring vehicles, aircraft equipment, dispatch systems, or the timing signals that synchronize cell towers.
Are There Any Legal Exceptions
Almost none. State and local law enforcement agencies have no independent authority to use jamming equipment. The FCC has stated this directly: no “public safety exception” in the Communications Act permits a police department, fire department, or other state or local body to jam signals during a tactical operation, a manhunt, or any other scenario.
The only entities that can legally jam signals are certain federal agencies operating under specific statutory grants. The Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice received counter-drone authority under the Preventing Emerging Threats Act of 2018, which lets their personnel disrupt control of unmanned aircraft posing a threat near airports, stadiums, and other sensitive locations. That authority has been extended through 2031. The Department of Defense and certain intelligence agencies have jamming capabilities under separate national security statutes.
Even the authorized federal programs are narrow. The Preventing Emerging Threats Act requires the FBI to train state and local officers on counter-drone technology before any deployment, and the authority applies only to specific threat scenarios following a risk-based assessment. Blanket jamming of GPS or cellular signals is not what the statute authorizes.
Reporting Suspected Jamming
If GPS or cellular service keeps dropping in a specific location and you suspect interference, contact your wireless provider first to rule out network problems or equipment failure. If the provider confirms the issue isn’t on their end, file a complaint through the FCC Consumer Complaint Center at consumercomplaints.fcc.gov. Select the “Phone” complaint category no matter which device is affected, put “Interference” or “Jamming” in the subject line, and choose “Signal Jammers” as the sub-issue. Include the affected devices, the symptoms, the date, time, and duration of the interference, and the troubleshooting you’ve already done.
Law enforcement officers should use a different channel, the FCC Enforcement Bureau’s Public Safety Interference Portal. When jamming is actively threatening safety of life, the FCC’s 24-hour Operations Center takes calls at 202-418-1122.
You Generally Cannot Sue the Jammer
One point that surprises people affected by nearby jamming: the Communications Act does not create a private right of action for signal interference. If a neighbor’s jammer wipes out your GPS or cellular service, you can report the conduct to the FCC, but you generally cannot sue the person under the Communications Act. Courts have consistently held that there is no recognized legal right to interference-free signal reception, and nuisance claims on this theory have largely failed. The realistic remedy is the FCC enforcement process.