New York wouldn't enforce its cheap-broadband law as part of a settlement with ISP associations including the New York State Telecommunications Association, USTelecom and CTIA.
President Joe Biden will nominate Jonathan Kanter to lead DOJ’s Antitrust Division, the White House announced Tuesday. Currently a partner at the Kanter Law Group, he previously served as an FTC Competition Bureau attorney.
There are many broadband and tech provisions in President Joe Biden's executive order on promoting competition, with suggestions for the FCC and FTC, per a White House fact sheet. Among them are net neutrality, broadband billing, and a right for consumers to get their tech devices repaired by third parties.
The Senate voted 69-28 Tuesday to confirm Lina Khan to the FTC. The chamber had voted 72-25 Monday night to invoke cloture on Khan, including all 50 Democratic caucus members and 22 Republicans.
Internet industry groups sued Florida over its social media law that makes it unlawful for sites to deplatform political candidates and requires sites to be transparent about policing.
The FTC unanimously supported a long-awaited report finding little evidence for some sectors' opposition to letting consumers fix their own devices. “Although manufacturers have offered numerous explanations for their repair restrictions, the majority are not supported by the record,” said the report OK'd 4-0 and issued Thursday afternoon.
President Joe Biden during his ongoing speech to Congress Wednesday night said he's putting Vice President Kamala Harris in charge of leading the push to include $100 billion for broadband in an infrastructure spending package. He said she's capable of getting that part of the plan across the finish line. The money is part of Biden's larger $2.3 trillion infrastructure proposal.
FTC Act Section 13(b) doesn’t authorize the agency to “seek, or a court to award, equitable monetary relief such as restitution or disgorgement,” the Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday in AMG Capital Management v. FTC (19-508). The agency can seek restitution for consumers under sections 5 and 19, said the opinion delivered by Justice Stephen Breyer. “If the Commission believes that authority too cumbersome or otherwise inadequate, it is, of course, free to ask Congress to grant it further remedial authority,” the court wrote.
Many telecom and ISPs say they want to participate in the FCC emergency broadband benefit programs, the agency announced Thursday. Among those are AT&T's BellSouth Communications (which AT&T confirms to us is the same as that company), Cable One, Comcast, Consolidated Telephone and Windstream.