Blumenthal, FCC, Public Interest Groups Back FTC Against AT&T in 9th Circuit

commission's lawsuit that alleged AT&T Mobility failed to adequately disclose its data throttling policy to customers with unlimited data plans (see 1610140038 and 1608290032). Blumenthal said (in Pacer) he supports a rehearing because if the opinion is allowed to stand, it "will create a regulatory gap that will allow unfair, deceptive, and fraudulent behavior to go without redress, harming consumers." The FCC said (in Pacer) the ruling would "undermine the agencies' successful partnership and harm consumers." The communications agency also said the decision would restrict the FTC's oversight of companies like AT&T, Comcast, Dish Network, Google and Verizon that have started to offer both common carrier and non-common carrier services. A dozen consumer and civil liberties groups -- including the Center for Digital Democracy, the Center for Democracy and Technology, Consumers Union, the Consumer Federation of America and the Electronic Privacy Information Center -- said (in Pacer) the ruling "could immunize from FTC oversight a vast swath of companies that engage to some degree in a common carrier activity." The result is "deeply disruptive to the market, and at odds with Congress' intent," they said, adding companies could commit deceptive and unfair acts as well as violate 70 other consumer protection laws. Companies like Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Twitter could soon even engage in common carrier activities to "shed FTC oversight," they said. Georgetown University Law professor Paul Ohm and University of Minnesota Law School professor William McGeveran jointly filed an amicus brief (in Pacer) in support of FTC. Public Knowledge (in Pacer) also filed backing the commission as did New America's Open Technology Institute and two others groups jointly.