11/30/2023 0 Comments Att throttling internet![]() ![]() ![]() The Ninth Circuit noted two things related to the dispute. Because the service that the FTC challenged (wireless broadband Internet access service (“BIAS”)) was not a common carrier service at the time that the FTC brought its action against AT&T, the trial court held AT&T was not engaging in common carrier activity and therefore the FTC had authority to bring its lawsuit.ĪT&T appealed the decision, arguing that the FTC Act’s exemption of common carriers should be based on their status, and thus telecommunications service providers like itself are exempt from the FTC’s authority regardless of whether the activity at issue is a common carrier service. The FTC argued, and the trial court held, that the common carrier exemption only applied to the extent that the service in question is a common carrier service (i.e., an “activity-based” test that precluded FTC jurisdiction only where a common carrier is engaging in common carrier activities). As providers and regulators have struggled to identify the proper regulations applicable to such services, the Ninth Circuit’s decision could force significant shifts by both the FTC and FCC for at least a large segment of the industry.Īt issue before the Ninth Circuit was the scope of the FTC Act’s exemption of “common carriers” from the FTC’s authority. The Ninth Circuit’s decision is the latest in a series of actions attempting to identify the jurisdiction over Internet access services and Internet-based services. The FTC asserted that AT&T’s imposition of the data speed restrictions was an “unfair act or practice,” and that AT&T’s failure to adequately disclose the policy was a “deceptive act or practice.” Once customers had used a certain level of data, AT&T would dramatically reduce their data speed, regardless of network congestion. The FTC had filed a complaint against AT&T for “throttling” the data usage of customers grandfathered into unlimited data plans. The Ninth Circuit dismissed a case that the FTC brought against AT&T over its practices in connection with wireless data services provided to AT&T’s customers with unlimited data plans. On Monday, August 29, 2016, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion that may dramatically alter the boundaries between the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) and Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) authority over phone companies, broadband providers, and other common carriers. ![]()
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