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Dozens of ISPs of all sizes agreed to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's suggestion the industry not take adverse action against customers for the next two months amid the coronavirus pandemic, he announced Friday morning. Those companies won't terminate service to any residential or small-business customers because of inability to pay due to such disruptions; will waive any related late fees; and will open their Wi-Fi hot spots to anyone. Pai is also seeking that the providers make other changes, including related to bandwidth caps.
The FCC proposed fining the four national wireless carriers a total of more than $200 million over privacy concerns, the agency's chairman, Ajit Pai, announced to reporters this afternoon. He said that the proposed penalties had recently been adopted.
The U.S. accused Huawei of conspiring to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. DOJ said Thursday afternoon that "a superseding indictment was returned yesterday in federal court in Brooklyn, New York."
The FTC ordered Alphabet/Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft to provide information about acquisitions they made since 2010 that weren't reported to that agency or DOJ under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act. The FTC Act Section 6(b) orders "will help the FTC deepen its understanding of large technology firms’ acquisition activity, including how these firms report their transactions to the federal antitrust agencies, and whether large tech companies are making potentially anticompetitive acquisitions of nascent or potential competitors that fall below HSR filing thresholds," the agency said Tuesday.
President Donald Trump said during his State of the Union speech he’s “committed to ensuring that every citizen can have access to high-speed internet, including and especially in rural America.” Tuesday night was the first time Trump mentioned broadband connectivity as a priority in the annual address, having not cited it during calls to pass infrastructure legislation in 2018 and 2019.
The FTC will review social media-related advertising guidelines in 2020, the agency confirmed Thursday. It will consider updating “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.” The guides offer insight into how the agency views truthfulness and deceptiveness in ads.
The U.S. Trade Representative Monday evening listed 63 Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheadings that may face tariffs of up to 100 percent when imported from France. It's in retaliation for that country’s digital services tax.