Recently, we published an article regarding a Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) Consent Decree where a company agreed to pay a $240,000 penalty for violating the FCC’s rules by engaging in transactions where FCC wireless licenses were transferred without filing for and obtaining the prior consent of the FCC.… Continue Reading
The FCC recently released a Consent Decree in which the Archer Daniel Midlands Company (“ADM”) agreed to pay a $240,000 penalty for violating the FCC’s rules by engaging in transactions where five FCC wireless licenses were transferred without filing for and obtaining the prior consent of the FCC, and by failing to reveal in numerous … Continue Reading
In late January, the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) released a Consent Decree penalizing Salem Media Group to the tune of $50,000 for “violat[ing] the FCC’s live broadcast rules by broadcasting prerecorded programming as ‘live’ without announcing before the broadcast that the programming was prerecorded.” In addition Salem has agreed to a three-year compliance plan to … Continue Reading
(But Doesn’t Offer Much Explanation as to Details or Guidance for Future Acceptable Action) On April 10, the FCC released Orders and associated Consent Decrees resolving investigations into alleged violations of the site registration and/or pre-construction environmental review procedures by Sprint and Mobilitie. In the past, the Commission has made it clear that it means … Continue Reading
Many noncommercial educational (NCE) stations – and their lawyers – were caught by surprise last week when the FCC issued a $115,000 civil penalty against an NCE licensee. The Cesar Chavez Foundation (CCF) was hit for running underwriting spots promoting for-profit entities. CCF agreed to the monetary penalty as part of an FCC approved consent … Continue Reading
Novel consent decree provision requires company to “share information” with third-party software developers and others. In what might ordinarily have been a run-of-the-mill consent decree between Wi-Fi equipment manufacturer TP-Link and the FCC, the company has admitted to selling potentially overpowered Wi-Fi routers and has agreed to pay a fine of $200,000 – toward the … Continue Reading
Enforcement Bureau extracts half-million dollar “civil penalty” AND an extensive compliance plan commitment from Cumulus for spots which it didn’t even sell. The Enforcement Bureau has scored another trophy for its burgeoning trophy room of extravagant penalties. This time, it’s $540,000 extracted from Cumulus for a supposedly inadequate sponsorship identification on a number of spots … Continue Reading
Sheet-metal company to pay $135,000 for license-related paperwork violations; offenses included operation after expiration and unauthorized transfer of control. Many businesses must comply with the FCC’s rules, even though they may not know it. Failing to understand this can prove expensive. Just ask Constellium Rolled Products Ravenswood, LLC. According to its website, Constellium is one … Continue Reading
Bureau reiterates view that using “deauthentication frames” to bounce hotspot users constitutes prohibited “interference”. Conference goers, rejoice! It looks like the FCC really is serious about preventing hotels and other conference venues from blocking access to the venues’ Wi-Fi networks through personal “hotspot” network devices. The Commission’s Enforcement Bureau had staked out its position on … Continue Reading
In none of the recent cases was the equipment shown actually to cause interference. There are not even allegations that the equipment exceeded the FCC's technical limits.… Continue Reading
Something - it's hard to say exactly what - recently occurred on the indecency front. It had to do with alleged indecency on a Spanish-language TV station.… Continue Reading
Some D. C. communications lawyers have asked the FCC Inspector General to take another look at a 2010 consent decree with Verizon that may not have been all it was cracked up to be.… Continue Reading
If you have a Verizon phone that uses C Block frequencies, tethering should be free. Still, three days after release of the consent decree, a limited spot check indicated that Verizon was still demanding $20 per month to tether a C Block phone.… Continue Reading
Stiffing the Commission on a consent decree commitment can't be tolerated, even when the stiffing occurs because the stiffer simply can't afford to pay. So the FCC has piled on even more fines to make that point clear.… Continue Reading
Divisions of Univision have entered into a consent decree with the FCC's Enforcement Bureau and, separately, copped a plea to mail fraud in federal court in Los Angeles -- thereby wrapping up, at least for now and at least for these parties -- a payola investigation which has focused on Spanish-language radio.… Continue Reading