A Lobbyist's Look At The Comcast Question

Posted on April 26, 2010 by FHH Law

Looking for net neutrality authority at the FCC? You might be one letter off. 

[Blogmeister’s Note: CommLawBlog.com welcomes back guest blogger Catherine McCullough, principal of Meadowbrook Strategic Government Relations, a D.C. lobbying firm. We are pleased that Catherine has agreed to share with our readers her thoughts on how the Administration might deal with its Comcast problem.]

Across the post-Comcast playing field, the governmental players are staking out their positions on the question of who, if anybody, has the authority to enforce network neutrality. 

A recent hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee provided examples: Chairman Rockefeller, emotionally describing how lack of service affected his constituents during the recent West Virginia coal-mining disaster, said he will put his considerable power behind writing a bill to give the FCC unambiguous authority to protect consumers; Ranking Member Hutchison – who doesn’t have the final say over any majority bill now, but whose party could hold all the cards if elections go Republicans’ way in November – warned the FCC that there would be consequences if it acted to reclassify. 

And in an exercise I’ve seen repeated in that Committee room by other agency leaders, Chairman Genachowski stuck to his written testimony and gently tiptoed around the hard questions (like how the FCC might plan to make the National Broadband Plan a reality given the new hazy regulatory climate).

If you were Mr. Genachowski, how would you deal with the conundrum of network neutrality in the aftermath of Comcast?

You could take up Rockefeller’s suggestion and ask Congress to give the FCC express statutory authority. But there are downsides of going to Congress for a remedy: chairs could shift during the November elections, and besides – would you really want to risk opening the Communications Act to amendments (shot clock, anyone?) And let’s not forget about timing – you want the NBP to move ahead now, not at some indefinite future point, after the full range of Congressional process has managed to inch its way to some (unpredictable) conclusion at some point in the indefinite future.

Or you could take Hutchison up on her challenge and reclassify internet access as a Title II telecommunications service. But as many have observed, that would almost certainly lead back to court. 

Or maybe, as Fletcher, Heald’s own Mitchell Lazarus has suggested, the FCC could find a more tailored way out.

Both of the last two options, however, involve the FCC re-jiggering its own legal authority from within – which risks potential punishment from the minority party (not a purely hypothetical risk, as Hutchison’s comments, noted above, demonstrate).

So what’s the answer? 

If I were Mr. Genachowski, stuck between a legal rock and a political hard place, I might look for some other way out of the bind – a way that would permit regulation of net neutrality while keeping my agency both out of court and out of any politically costly cross-fire in Congress. If only I had a protector. Or in this case, a consumer protector. You see where I am going with this: I would consider handing off the net neutrality hot potato to my regulatory siblings at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). 

The FTC can’t regulate common carriers. But so far ISPs aren’t common carriers, thanks to the FCC’s consistent reluctance thus far to so categorize them. And if ISPs aren’t common carriers, the FTC can step in. (See tech attorney Glenn Manishin’s analysis of Comcast on this point.) 

Section 5(a) of the FTC Act gives the agency jurisdiction over “unfair or deceptive acts or practices”, and FTC Chairman Leibowitz has been willing in the past to assert jurisdiction in order to protect consumers. 

Remember, dear Readers, Chairman Leibowitz has sunk significant political capital into asserting his agency’s power over online commerce issues and other consumer protection initiatives that are threatened if someone in the government can’t enforce net neutrality. So the FTC could be expected to welcome the authority to regulate ISPs and implement net neutrality.

And – just as politically important here – if the FTC were to be deemed the principal locus of control over the issue, Chairman Rockefeller and his Senate Commerce Committee – and their colleagues on the House side – would lose no power. The Commerce Committees have oversight authority over both the FCC and the FTC, so allowing one of the two agencies to take up regulation in an area – say, net neutrality – previously controlled by the other agency would not realign Congressional power in any way. All Chairman Rockefeller has to do is ask his Consumer Protection Subcommittee Counsels to join his meetings with his Communications Counsels. 

But even if the FTC is standing by, ready, willing and able to take over, and even if that approach would likely be acceptable to the powers-that-be on the Hill, there’s still one big question: would Mr. Genachowski voluntarily give up the power he believes his agency has? Jurisdiction does not switch hands easily or often in this town, but Mr. Genachowski’s boss, President Obama, might not care which of his agencies holds authority, as long as his National Broadband Plan’s infrastructure is protected.

One thing, I believe, is certain: net neutrality enforcement authority will be assigned eventually. Like a handful of chips thrown into the air on a casino floor, no part of government’s power will be left un-gathered and unused. The only question left is who will pick them up.
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Calendar Update

Posted on March 22, 2010 by FHH Law

Robocall NPRM comment deadlines set

Two months ago we reported on a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in which the FCC was looking to clamp down on unsolicited “robocalls”. That NPRM has at long last appeared in the Federal Register, which in turn establishes the deadlines for comments and reply comments on the Commission’s proposals. Comments are due by May 21, 2010, reply comments by June 21, 2010.

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FCC Clamps Down on Automated Dinner Interruptions

Posted on January 27, 2010 by Matt McCormick

Proposed rules would increase FCC restrictions on “robocalls”

You would think marketing experts would realize that making you crawl off your couch to field an unsolicited phone solicitation – especially one delivered via prerecorded message (i.e., a “robocall”) – is a poor way to generate loyal customers. But the practice persists.

Robocalls and other forms of telephone solicitation have been such an irritant that Congress, over the years, has passed several laws to regulate them, giving both the FCC and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) authority to adopt telemarketing regulations. The two agencies’ regulations generally track one another, but sometimes gaps appear.

The FTC recently amended its rules to tighten the robocall restrictions. The FCC now wants to come into sync with the FTC, and accordingly released a detailed Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. 

You might ask: Why do we need both agencies to adopt regulations? Can’t we just rely on the FTC? Well, you probably could, if things were set up differently. But as it is, the FTC’s jurisdiction to regulate telemarketing, oddly enough, is less than universal: it doesn’t cover common carriers (e.g., telephone companies or airlines) when they are “engaged in common carrier activity”. Similarly, the FTC telemarketing rule does not reach banks, federal credit unions, federal savings and loans, or non-profit organizations. The FCC’s telemarketing jurisdiction, by contrast, covers promotions by all those industries.  Moreover the FCC has jurisdiction over both interstate and intrastate telephone solicitations, while the FTC’s rules cover only interstate telemarketing.

Under the proposed the FCC’s proposed new rules:

  • Robocallers would be required to get “express written consent” before delivering prerecorded telemarketing messages to any residential customer, whether or not he/she has registered on the FTC’s “do not call” list. (Current FCC rules require such written consent only for those on the “do not call” list.) The proposed requirement would apply even if an established business relationship exists between the caller and the customer which otherwise permits live telemarketing calls. Under the FCC’s proposal, “written” consent for robocalls would not actually need to be “written”, but could also be obtained in other ways, including pressing a particular number on the phone keypad. That flexibility would, of course, cushion the blow for telemarketers. BUT the written “consent” would have to: (a) reflect that the telemarketer had provided “clear and conspicuous notice” to the consumer that he/she was authorizing delivery of robocalls and that the consumer is willing to receive such calls; and (b) make clear that the consent was not obtained as a condition to the purchase of any good or service; and (c) include the consumer’s phone number.
  • Robocaller messages would be required to include an automated, interactive mechanism to allow consumers to opt out of receiving future robocalls from that particular company.
  • During any one campaign, telemarketers using automated dialing equipment to connect consumers to live pitchmen (or pitchwomen) would be permitted to abandon no more than three percent of the calls that people answer. (A call is abandoned, according to the FCC, if the consumer is not connected with a sales representative within two seconds after the end of the greeting.) The FCC’s current rule allows the same abandonment rate over a 30-day period, thereby permitting the telemarketer to average its rate over multiple campaigns.
  • Healthcare-related prerecorded messages from certain federally regulated entities would be exempt. This includes messages such as flu shot and prescription refill reminders, requests for documents needed for insurance billing, and calls to encourage enrollment in treatment programs.

The proposed amendments would not change other robocall exemptions, such as fundraising calls from non-profit organizations, calls from politicians or political campaigns, and calls from commercial entities that are purely informational, such as airline flight cancellation notices. Emergency alerts are also exempt.

Comments regarding the proposed rules are due 60 days after the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking is published in the Federal Register, which has not yet occurred. Reply comments are due 30 days after the comment deadline.   We will publish the dates when they become available.
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