The FCC committed no errors in dismissing a petition for...

Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The provider of cloud-based products for corporate call centers later disputed $298,410.50 of the charges, but its complaint was dismissed by the Wireline Bureau. The bureau said inContact had filed its appeal “20 days late.” In June 2010, inContact sought review by the full FCC, which handed down an order in January 2012, upholding the decision by the bureau. InContact sought review by the D.C. Circuit. “The sole issue properly before the Court is whether the Commission abused its discretion when it upheld the Bureau’s dismissal of inContact’s underlying request for review of an action taken by the Administrator because inContact’s request was filed out of time,” the FCC said (http://xrl.us/bnj26p). “The Commission did not abuse its discretion or otherwise act unlawfully when it concluded that inContact’s request had been properly dismissed on procedural grounds. The Commission reasonably determined that the issuance of an invoice by USAC constitutes a ‘decision’ of the Administrator that must be appealed within 60 days. ... Because inContact did not file its request for review until 80 days after issuance of the invoice, it was too late.” The FCC said under case law, “the courts owe substantial deference to an agency’s construction of its own rules."