Verizon Communications will pay $7.4 million to settle U.S. Federal Communications Commission allegations that the company failed to notify millions of customers that they could opt out of having their personal information used in internal marketing campaigns, the FCC has announced.

The settlement is the largest in FCC history related to telephone customers’ privacy, the agency said in a news release.

An investigation by the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau found that Verizon failed to notify approximately 2 million new customers, on their first invoices or welcome letters of their privacy rights, about how to opt out of having their personal information used in marketing campaigns, the FCC said. Over the course of several years, Verizon accessed their personal information for marketing campaigns before informing customers of their opt-out rights, the agency said.

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