FCC Stops Comcast/TWC Shot Clock Over Withheld, Erroneous Documents

documents in question were part of the FCC’s August information request, it said. Responses to the request were due Sept. 11. The missing information includes “in excess of 7,000 responsive documents [that] had been withheld based on an inappropriate claim of attorney client privilege” and weren’t given to the FCC until Dec. 8 and 9, and “in excess of 31,000” documents that weren’t produced because of “vendor error,” the FCC said. Though TWC initially said the latter documents would be produced Dec. 30, the FCC said it has recently learned that the documents and a revised privilege log will be produced Monday. “The effect of these late disclosures has been to slow down the Commission’s review of the Comcast/TWC/Charter transaction, in particular because sections of the review that staff had thought were complete now must be reopened to take account of the additional documents,” the FCC said. FCC staff has also been “hampered” in reviewing TWC’s initial privilege log because it's incomplete and contains errors, the order said. “The magnitude of the errors, with respect to both the document production and the privilege log, is material and the delays in rectifying them were substantial so that the tardy productions have interfered with the Commission’s ability to conduct a prompt and thorough review of the pending applications,” the order said. The pleading cycle remains active and reply comments are still due Tuesday, the FCC said. "We already have provided the FCC more than five million pages of documents and we will continue to provide the FCC everything that they need to review this transaction,” TWC said in an email.