Court: FTC Missed Deadline for Subscription Rule
The FTC failed to meet a statutory deadline in response to a request to consolidate various lawsuits against the agency’s click-to-cancel rule, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in a filing Tuesday (see 2411070025). NCTA, the Interactive Advertising…
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Bureau and the Electronic Security Association earlier this month filed a mandamus petition with the 5th Circuit. The organizations filed one of four lawsuits against the new agency rule, which groups are seeking to consolidate within one federal court. The groups’ petition said the agency failed to forward the request for consolidation to the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation within a 10-day window of the rule’s issuance. The 5th Circuit agreed Tuesday, dismissing the agency’s argument that the 10-day window begins when the rule is published in the Federal Register, not when the rule was publicly announced, on Oct. 16. The agency failed to cite authority establishing that timeline, and the court hasn’t found legal justification, the filing said. The court granted the mandamus, forcing the agency to forward the complaints to the JPML. The court denied the groups’ request for an administrative stay, saying placing a hold on the rule is unnecessary because it’s not yet in effect. The associations have argued they’re incurring compliance costs in preparation for the rule.