The Colorado Public Utilities Commission should pause a rulemaking on incarcerated people’s communications services (IPCS) until the FCC completes its rulemaking that will implement the Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act, said ViaPath in comments Friday at the PUC. Due to the 2022 law, "regulation of all IPCS -- intrastate, interstate, and international -- is now within the jurisdiction of the FCC,” the IPCS provider said in docket 24R-0184T. With the FCC required to finish the rulemaking by January, it “would be administratively inefficient for the [PUC] to proceed without having the benefit of the final FCC ruling on the scope of state commission jurisdiction over IPCS," ViaPath said. Separately, Securus raised concerns with the PUC possibly expanding reporting requirements beyond data on phone calls and video service complaints. “Expanding the scope of the reporting … would result in the publication of information beyond that contemplated by [law] and which [IPCS] providers have legitimate interests in maintaining as confidential and proprietary," the company said.
It wouldn’t be an “unfunded mandate” to require ISPs to have $15 affordable broadband plans as a condition of getting support from the California Public Utilities Commission’s federal funding account (FFA), The Utility Reform Network said Tuesday. TURN replied in docket R.20-09-001 to industry objections to the group’s petition asking the CPUC to pause FFA grants until it modifies rules to account for the federal affordable connectivity program (ACP) winding down (see 2405160055). "The courts have previously held that funding conditions for voluntary programs are permissible; funding conditions are not unfunded mandates or rate regulations,” said TURN. "Providers are free to decline FFA participation and instead charge customers whatever they wish.” Existing ISP-designed affordable plans are no substitute for ACP, added the consumer group: Such industry plans "tend to have significantly more restrictive eligibility requirements than the ACP and therefore will not be available to all ACP recipients.” TURN has two other petitions related to ACP's end (see 2405240060).
U.S. District Judge John Chun for Western Washington in Seattle denied the motion of Amazon and three of its executives to dismiss the FTC’s amended Amazon Prime complaint, said Chun’s signed order Tuesday (docket 2:23-cv-00932). The FTC’s Sept. 20 amended complaint alleges Amazon for years has tried to enroll consumers into its Prime program without their consent "while knowingly making it difficult" for them to cancel their Prime subscriptions (see 2309200069). Newly named in the amended complaint were Neil Lindsay, Russell Grandinetti and Jamil Ghani, Amazon executives with current or former Prime oversight. Amazon’s motion to dismiss argued that its Prime enrollment processes don’t violate the FTC Act or the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act (ROSCA), as the FTC alleged. Because this matter comes before the court on Rule 12(b)(6) motions to dismiss, the court must accept as true the allegations in the amended complaint and must view them in the light most favorable to the FTC, said the judge’s order. The FTC alleges that Amazon’s online cancellation process for Prime “required consumers to click six times and go through four screens, seeking to entice consumers not to cancel the subscription, or merely pause the subscription, before the consumer could finally cancel Prime,” it said. Viewing the amended complaint in the light most favorable to the FTC, the court can’t dismiss the claim that cancellation method wasn't a “simple mechanism,” as ROSCA requires, said the order. A "reasonable company in Amazon’s position" would be aware that state and federal laws, including ROSCA, "regulate negative option marketing and require that material terms be clearly and conspicuously disclosed and that they must obtain express informed consent before charging consumers," said the order. Viewing the amended complaint in the light most favorable to the FTC, the court concludes that the allegations "sufficiently indicate that Amazon had actual or constructive knowledge that its Prime sign-up and cancelation flows were misleading consumers," it said.
Despite expectations that the affordable connectivity program (ACP) will run dry in days, telecom companies continued arguing in comments last week that the California Public Utilities Commission should take its time forming its response. However, while larger ISPs slammed consumer advocates' proposal, small local exchange carriers said they would work with the advocates on a compromise that quickly expands California LifeLine support to broadband.
Rep. Sara Jacobs, D-Calif., introduced a bill May 22 that would prohibit U.S. arms sales to the United Arab Emirates until the Biden administration certifies that the UAE is no longer providing material support to Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
The House Foreign Affairs Committee on May 22 approved bills that could expand controls on artificial intelligence exports and increase congressional oversight of arms transfers to Israel.
A Russian court based in St. Petersburg on May 18 seized nearly $760 million of assets belonging to UniCredit, Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank, according to the Financial Times. A subsidiary of Russian gas giant Gazprom, RusChemAlliance, had told the court that the three western banks must pay bank guarantees under a contract with German firm Linde. RusChemAlliance's contract with Linde, which concerned the construction of a liquified natural gas processing plant and production facility in St. Petersburg, was paused due to EU sanctions on the Russian company.
A Russian court based in St. Petersburg on May 18 seized nearly $760 million of assets belonging to UniCredit, Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank, according to the Financial Times. A subsidiary of Russian gas giant Gazprom, RusChemAlliance, had told the court that the three western banks must pay bank guarantees under a contract with German firm Linde. RusChemAlliance's contract with Linde, which concerned the construction of a liquified natural gas processing plant and production facility in St. Petersburg, was paused due to EU sanctions on the Russian company.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee this week plans to mark up a bill that is intended to help the Bureau of Industry and Security control exports of artificial intelligence systems and other new national security-related technologies (see 2405100063).
NAB, NPR and other opponents of the FCC’s authorization of geotargeted radio used Thursday’s comments deadline to take additional shots at the technology, while proponent GeoBroadcast Solutions said the agency should “keep an open mind.” Two broadcast entities, Press Communications and REC Networks, have called for reconsideration of the agency’s order allowing content origination on FM booster stations. Geotargeted radio will “erode public confidence in FM radio broadcasting” and harm stations “baited into employing the technology,” NAB said in docket 20-401.