A listing of recent antidumping and countervailing duty messages from the International Trade Administration posted to CBP's website May 31, along with the case number(s) and CBP message number, is provided below. The messages are available by searching for the listed CBP message number at addcvd.cbp.gov. (CBP occasionally adds backdated messages without otherwise indicating which message was added. ITT will include a message date in parentheses in such cases.)
Apple looks set to fight against e-book price setting claims in a trial beginning Monday in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, industry observers told us. The case centers on Department of Justice’s claims that, as Apple was introducing the iPad and entering the e-book market, it and five major publishers conspired to increase e-book prices by requiring distributors -- especially Amazon, which was selling all e-books at $9.99 -- to abide by prices set by publishers. Apple remains the sole defendant in the case after the publishers -- Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin and Simon & Schuster -- settled with the department. During a preliminary hearing last month, presiding Judge Denise Cote said that, having read only some of the evidence, she thinks DOJ has evidence to prove that Apple conspired with the publishers, according to news reports (http://reut.rs/122cFXw).
Apple looks set to fight against e-book price setting claims in a trial beginning Monday in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, industry observers told us. The case centers on Department of Justice’s claims that, as Apple was introducing the iPad and entering the e-book market, it and five major publishers conspired to increase e-book prices by requiring distributors -- especially Amazon, which was selling all e-books at $9.99 -- to abide by prices set by publishers. Apple remains the sole defendant in the case after the publishers -- Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin and Simon & Schuster -- settled with the department. During a preliminary hearing last month, presiding Judge Denise Cote said that, having read only some of the evidence, she thinks DOJ has evidence to prove that Apple conspired with the publishers, according to news reports (http://reut.rs/122cFXw).
Cable company claims that broadcasters negotiating retransmission consent fees on behalf of multiple stations are driving up prices for consumers aren’t true, said the NAB in an ex parte letter filed with the FCC Wednesday. The letter is a response to a series of American Cable Association filings attacking broadcasters for the practice. “Retransmission consent payments are not responsible for the high and rising consumer prices charged by cable operators” said the NAB, citing studies it said show that only two cents on the dollar of cable revenue go to retrans fees, while 20 cents go to other programming. “Government intervention to reduce the fees that MVPDs pay for local stations’ signals would only inflate MVPD profit margins,” said the NAB. The ACA did not comment. The American Television Alliance of which many operators are members said that retrans fees are estimated to rise to over $6 billion by 2018, from $1.24 billion in 2010. ATVA said the higher fees have led to an increase in blackouts, which it said went up 658 percent between 2010 and 2012. “So both blackouts and retransmission fees are skyrocketing,” the group said in a news release Thursday. “How do these trends in any way help television viewers?” Though the ACA had asked the FCC to prevent broadcasters from negotiating on behalf of several stations, the NAB said some cable operators have asked broadcasters to do so in the past, and that cable operators enjoy a bigger competitive advantage then broadcasters. “Undermining broadcasters’ statutory retransmission consent negotiation rights ultimately would reduce the quality and diversity of broadcast programming,” said NAB. Meanwhile Thursday the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s denial of Nexstar’s request for a preliminary injunction and restraining order against Time Warner Cable over TWC’s importing of distant signals from Nexstar, which the broadcaster said violates its retrans content agreement with TWC. “The district court correctly found Nexstar is not likely to succeed on the merits of its breach of contract or copyright claims,” said the 5th Circuit. “Thus, its denial of a preliminary injunction and a temporary restraining order was not an abuse of discretion.”
The government of Canada issued the following trade-related notices for May 31 (Note that some may also be given separate headlines.)
A listing of recent antidumping and countervailing duty messages from the International Trade Administration posted to CBP's website May 30, along with the case number(s) and CBP message number, is provided below. The messages are available by searching for the listed CBP message number at addcvd.cbp.gov. (CBP occasionally adds backdated messages without otherwise indicating which message was added. ITT will include a message date in parentheses in such cases.)
The Commerce Department published notices in the May 30 Federal Register on the following AD/CV duty proceedings (any notices that announce changes to AD/CV duty rates, scope, affected firms, or effective dates will be detailed in another ITT article):
The International Trade Administration issued its quarterly list of (i) completed antidumping and countervailing duty scope rulings and (ii) anticircumvention determinations.
The Commerce Department will collect countervailing duties on frozen warmwater shrimp from China, India, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam, but will leave alone shrimp imports from Ecuador and Indonesia as a result of negative subsidy determinations, it said in a fact sheet. In its preliminary determinations, announced May 29, the agency found CV rates of 5.76 percent for Chinese companies; 5.72 to 6.1 percent for Indian companies; 10.8 to 62.74 for Malaysian companies; de minimis to 2.09 percent for Thai companies; and 5.08 to 7.05 percent for Vietnamese companies. The final determinations in these countervailing duty investigations are due in August.
FCC acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn has yet to lay out a clear agenda for what she will do in what could be an extended period leading the agency. More will be known next week, when Clyburn releases the preliminary agenda for her first meeting as chair, scheduled for June 27.