Vercel Avoids Contempt Penalties After Admitting Warrant Compliance Failures
Vercel, a cloud hosting provider, escaped civil contempt charges after admitting it failed to properly comply with an FBI search warrant in August 2025, with user data sitting undetected in a deletion queue. The company had initially believed the requested data was already deleted but later located and handed over all files the FBI sought. Vercel agreed to a stipulated dismissal, admitted wrongdoing, overhauled its legal process procedures, and covered the government's legal fees.
Vercel faced civil contempt charges after failing to timely comply with a federal search warrant issued by the FBI in August 2025 related to an unidentified individual's account. The core issue was that while Vercel believed the user's account data had been deleted, it was actually still sitting in the company's deletion queue—a system designed to thoroughly erase data-heavy information without disrupting live databases. During a February 2 hearing, Magistrate Judge Carson found the government had established a prima facie case for civil contempt. Three days later, Vercel located and handed over all previously unretrieved files. The company agreed to a stipulated dismissal with conditions: it admitted its Trust and Safety team lacked adequate tools to locate, preserve, or produce content in both regular storage and deletion queues, agreed to update its legal process procedures, and paid the government's legal costs. Justice Department officials emphasized that search warrants are mandatory directives, not suggestions.
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Vercel escapes contempt rap after admitting it botched FBI warrant response
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