US regulator's 'throttling' lawsuit against AT&T to be reheard: court

Reuters
Reuters
Author

13 May, 2017

A federal appellate court has agreed to reconsider its earlier ruling that the Federal Trade Commission lacks authority to prosecute AT&T for allegedly throttling customers with unlimited wireless data.

The court ruled past year that the FTC had no jurisdiction over common carriers - a designation for companies that offer phone services.

The Californian court dismissed the data throttling case a year ago, but has now said it will reconsider it before the full 11-judge panel, according to Reuters.

FCC chairman Ajit Pai has suggested that en banc review paves the way for the FCC to restore broadband privacy authority, including rolling back the common carrier reclassification of ISPs, which returns broadband access privacy enforcement to the FTC.

Pai said in a statement that the decision was a win for net neutrality opponents.

Ninth Circuit's broad ruling would create an "enforcement gap" in which no federal agency could oversee non-common carrier services provided by common carriers.

It also means the web giants like Google with a side business as a broadband provider (Google Fiber) could fall within "a privacy vacuum" between both agencies.

Republicans opposed the move because it opened up the industry to tougher regulations. But the FCC wrote a legal submission supporting the FTC's argument for a full rehearing of the Ninth Circuit's original decision. Chief Judge Thomas said the previous decision from the three-judge panel "shall not be cited as precedent by or to any court of the Ninth Circuit" in the meantime.

It was a significant victory for Pai personally, who had taken a significant gamble in scrapping the rules and so put millions of U.S. consumers in privacy legal limbo. "Now that the court's prior decision is no longer effective, it will be easier for the FTC to protect consumers' online privacy", he said.

A federal court will rehear a case brought by AT&T against the Federal Trade Commission, after it ruled previous year that the agency does not have authority over telecommunications companies. But AT&T countered that it was exempt from liability under that provision due to its status as a "common carrier".

If that happens, it would be a significant shift in how the USA government and courts decide how to view the actions of the companies that handle citizens' everyday communications.

Pai wants to strip back a number of rules which he has labelled as a serious mistake, including the 2015 Title II Order.

If we put on our rose-tinted glasses, it could even open a door for bi-partisan legislation to update the Telecommunications Acts of 1934 and 1996, since it would remove numerous current stumbling blocks to Congressional action.


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