The Bureau of Industry and Security’s recent 90-day pause in issuing commercial firearms export licenses will financially harm companies, especially small ones, that rely on foreign sales for income, according to a letter five Republican members of the House Small Business Committee sent to BIS.
Meta seeks a permanent injunction from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia enjoining the FTC, Chair Lina Khan and Commissioners Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya from modifying the agency's 2020 privacy consent order with new restrictions on Meta’s business activities. Meta’s complaint late Wednesday (docket 1:23-cv-03562) asked the court to declare that “fundamental aspects” of the FTC’s structure violate the Constitution, and these violations “render unlawful” the FTC’s proceeding against Meta.
The Commerce Department quietly stopped approving new licenses for firearms exports to three Latin American countries months before publicly announcing a broader suspension in October for dozens of other nations.
Nearly six months into a yearlong effort, members of NAB-led, FCC-involved ATSC 3.0 task force on the Future of TV Initiative (FTI) (see 2306090043) told us it will likely shift to delving into specific issues after spending early meetings covering 3.0 basics. Digital rights management (DRM) and encryption for ATSC 3.0 signals have become an early point of disagreement at working group meetings, but participants we spoke with said the process was largely collegial and praised the task force's diversity. “If we don’t have any tough conversations, we’re not doing it right,” said NAB Associate General Counsel Patrick McFadden, who oversees the task force.
The Commerce Department's cross-owned input supplier analysis in a case on the 2018 countervailing duty review of steel concrete reinforcing bar from Turkey "has a direct and precedential bearing" on the Court of International Trade's decision in the case on the 2020 review of the same order, exporter Kaptan Demir Celik Endustrisi ve Ticaret told the trade court (Kaptan Demir Celik Endustrisi ve Ticaret v. United States, CIT # 22-00149).
An administrative law judge delayed until Dec. 1 the deadline to respond to Center for Accessible Technology’s Oct. 6 petition to modify the California Public Utilities Commission’s 2021 decision approving the Verizon/Tracfone deal. Nearing a possible settlement, Verizon and CforAT last week sought a pause in the proceeding regarding the carrier’s challenges with migrating Tracfone customers still using non-Verizon networks (see 2311030008). Since the CPUC won’t issue a proposed decision by Thursday, the commission won’t be able to decide the proceeding this year, noted ALJ Thomas Glegola in Friday’s email ruling in docket A.20-11-001.
The U.S. shouldn’t implement new cyber regulations until the Office of National Cyber Director has completed its formal process for harmonizing regulations across the government, industry groups told the White House in comments posted last week. The ONCD requested comments to “understand existing challenges with regulatory overlap” and harmonize regulations across agencies. USTelecom urged the administration to halt the issuance of new cyber regulations until the review is completed, except for regulations already subject to statutory deadlines. “This temporary pause prevents the introduction of additional, potentially conflicting regulations,” said USTelecom. CTIA suggested the ONCD coordinate with agencies and hold off on any new regulations until the harmonization work is “mature.” Promulgating new requirements may hinder ONCD’s “efforts to harmonize the already vast cybersecurity regulatory landscape,” said CTIA. BSA | The Software Alliance noted the Biden administration’s national cyber strategy “prioritizes regulatory harmonization,” but agencies continue to add more cyber regulations. “To be clear, this is not a call to end the regulation of cybersecurity but to pause new regulations as the US Government gains a wholistic understanding of the regulatory landscape,” said BSA. NCTA suggested the administration can look to NIST’s cybersecurity framework “to achieve design, implementation, operational, and compliance-related efficiencies.”
Amazon has “quietly and deliberately" raised prices through "a covert operation called ‘Project Nessie'” that has “extracted" more than $1 billion from American homes, alleges the FTC's in a newly released public complaint (docket 2:23-cv-1495), a less-redacted version of the agency's Sept. 26 antitrust complaint against the e-commerce giant.
A 9th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court panel handed choreographer Kyle Hanagami a victory Wednesday, reversing the district court’s dismissal of his Copyright Act complaint in which he alleged Epic Games stole his dance moves for its flagship Fortnite franchise. The panel remanded for further proceedings on Hanagami’s claims of direct and contributory infringement of a choreographic work.
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., and other backers of his Senate-passed 5G Spectrum Authority Licensing Enforcement Act (S-2787) are resuming their push for the House to pass the measure now that the chamber has resolved the leadership crisis that halted all legislative activity for most of October. The measure’s backers believe its enactment may be the easiest way to blunt the short-term effects of the FCC losing its spectrum auction authority, a lapse that began almost eight months ago. Lawmakers are continuing to press for full restoration of the mandate but believe that will be difficult until DOD releases its much-anticipated report on repurposing the 3.1-3.45 GHz band for commercial 5G use.