The International Trade Administration (ITA) has issued the final results of its countervailing (CV) duty administrative review of certain in-shell pistachios from Iran for the period of January 1, 2004 through December 31, 2004.

The FCC raised the reimbursement rates for telecom relay services (TRS) above those recommended by the National Exchange Carrier Assn. (NECA), after deciding to include some costs that NECA had excluded. The FCC raised the overall TRS fund size to $419.7 million for the year beginning July 1, 2006, compared with the $387.8 million recommended by NECA. The higher FCC number reflects, in large part, the agency’s decision to restore advertising and marketing expenses, which NECA recommended dropping. Advocates for hearing-impaired people had argued that advertising and marketing were important to make potential users aware of the relay services. The FCC said there has been confusion about the nature of these expenses, which sometimes are labeled “outreach,” so while the expenses have been restored for reimbursement, this action shouldn’t be interpreted as stopping the FCC in the future from deciding some of these costs aren’t eligible for compensation. For video relay service (VRS), the largest type of relay services, the FCC froze the current compensation rate until the Commission adopts a new rate based on new methodology and clarification of some other cost recovery issues. NECA had recommended reducing the rate. Pat Nola, CEO of Sorenson Communications, which provides VRS products, said the company had argued costs justified raising the reimbursement rate. However, the decision to freeze this year’s rate “is a positive preliminary step” while the FCC begins creating a new rate methodology. TRS reimbursement pays for the cost of providing services.

Google, Yahoo, MSN and others are stonewalling on click fraud to their own and others’ detriment, said research firm Outsell. Online advertisers estimate 14.6% of the clicks they're billed for are fraudulent, representing about $800 million in spending for fraudulent clicks in 2005, according to the study of 407 advertisers responsible for about $1 billion in advertising.

Dutch telecom company KPN said it’s suing the Dutch govt. for subjecting KPN to unequal regulation compared to rivals in the cable sector. Its recent launch of digital TV services makes KPN a direct competitor of Dutch cable operators, which also offer Internet and telephony. KPN said it’s subject to “a complex web of rules and regulations” cable companies don’t face. It said cable operators cross- subsidize new services such as telephony with proceeds from TV and selectively price-dump to keep KPN and others out of the market. Europe is the setting for a battle over growth amid cut-price competition from cable companies in fixed-line telephony and an increasing shift to wireless. KPN is complaining to Dutch competition authority NMa and communications regulator OPTA and seeking a preliminary injunction in court to end “this unequal treatment,” it said. The Dutch govt. still holds a share of about 8% in KPN.

The Belgian govt. has no power over transfer of bank transaction data by the SWIFT financial cooperative to the American govt., a preliminary investigation showed, the govt. said. “After the first analysis of our reports, it appears that all the information furnished by SWIFT to the U.S. Treasury was done through the normal activities of its U.S. subsidiary,” the Belgian govt. said. It still needed to receive a final report before making a decision on the matter, the govt. said, promising to communicate its conclusions to the Belgian parliament, but not giving any timetable for that. SWIFT said it had done nothing that violated the privacy of customers, and that it had done nothing illegal. In a statement, SWIFT said it negotiated with the “U.S. Treasury over the scope and oversight of the subpoenas.” Meanwhile, the ACLU welcomed London-based Privacy International’s (PI’s) call to investigate U.S. tracking. The group will aid PI in pressing European officials to act, it said. “Privacy rights are being violated on both sides of the Atlantic -- and we welcome a European investigation to get to the bottom of this,” ACLU Technology & Liberty Project Dir. Barry Steinhardt said. PI wrote to European privacy commissioners urging they investigate SWIFT data sharing. PI, which fears the practice “substantially violates data protection law,” asked policymakers to “demand that the disclosure program be suspended pending legal review.” The fact that millions of records are involved in the operation “places this disclosure in the realm of a fishing exercise rather than legally authorised investigation,” the group said. “Things have reached a crisis point when some of our best hopes for preserving privacy in America lie with foreign commissioners,” Steinhardt said.

The Belgian govt. said Wed. a preliminary investigation showed it had no power over transfer of bank transaction data by SWIFT to the American govt. “After the first analysis of our reports, it appears that all the information furnished by SWIFT to the U.S. Treasury was done through the normal activities of its U.S. subsidiary,” the Belgian govt. said. It still needed to receive a final report before making a decision on the matter, the govt. said, promising to communicate its conclusions to the Belgian parliament, but not giving any timetable for that. SWIFT said it had done nothing that violated the privacy of customers, and that it had done nothing illegal. In a statement, SWIFT said it negotiated with the “U.S. Treasury over the scope and oversight of the subpoenas.”

The International Trade Administration (ITA) has issued the final results of its countervailing (CV) duty administrative review of certain pasta from Italy for the period of January 1, 2004 through December 31, 2004.

The Entertainment Merchants Assn. (EMA) and Entertainment Software Assn. (ESA) sued another state for a violent videogame law they believe violates First Amendment rights. This time, the groups filed a suit in U.S. Dist. Court, Oklahoma City, to overturn Okla. House Bill 3004, signed into law June 9 and slated to take effect Nov. 1.

The International Trade Administration (ITA) has issued its preliminary results of the following antidumping (AD) duty administrative reviews:

The EC should not keep regulators from promoting competition if it deregulates telecom markets, the European Competitive Telecom Assn. (ECTA) said Fri. On Wed., the EC is expected to unveil recommendations on whether some of 18 markets subject to possible pre-emptive competition rules under the e-communication regulatory framework should come off that list. Last week it the Commission seemed ready to remove 7, including several retail markets (CD June 23 p9). ECTA Regulatory Affairs Head Ilsa Godlovitch, emphasizing the general and preliminary nature of her comments, told us there’s strong evidence effective pro-competition regulation drives investment and broadband takeup, “as can be seen in countries such as the U.K. [first in Europe to liberalize] and France [impressive broadband growth following regulatory intervention].” Now isn’t the time to declaw regulators, but to ensure they have strong tools to force access where needed and to prevent the kinds of behavior that undermine competitors’ business plans and investments, she said.