President Joe Biden will nominate Jonathan Kanter to lead DOJ’s Antitrust Division, the White House announced Tuesday. Currently a partner at the Kanter Law Group, he previously served as an FTC Competition Bureau attorney.
Saying it accepted the argument that AT&T’s spinoff of its North American video distribution business poses no substantial harms, the FCC signed off on the related license transfers Friday. AT&T didn’t immediately comment.
The FTC plans an open meeting at noon Wednesday, when commissioners will vote on issuing a new policy statement on right to repair restrictions. President Joe Biden’s executive order earlier this month encouraged the FTC to issue rules against anticompetitive restrictions on using independent repair shops or doing do-it-yourself repairs of devices and equipment. See our bulletin here. The FTC will vote on issuing a “new policy statement, following the Commission's ‘Nixing the Fix’ report which was unanimously agreed to and announced on May 6, 2021,” Chair Lina Khan announced July 12.
There are many broadband and tech provisions in President Joe Biden's executive order on promoting competition, with suggestions for the FCC and FTC, per a White House fact sheet. Among them are net neutrality, broadband billing, and a right for consumers to get their tech devices repaired by third parties.
A federal judge froze Florida’s law regulating social media hours before it was to take effect.
The Senate voted 69-28 Tuesday to confirm Lina Khan to the FTC. The chamber had voted 72-25 Monday night to invoke cloture on Khan, including all 50 Democratic caucus members and 22 Republicans.
President Joe Biden plans to name Lina Khan as his pick for permanent FTC chair, a White House official confirmed to us Tuesday. Khan would succeed current acting Chairwoman Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, who’s led the FTC since shortly after Biden took office in January. News of Khan’s impending ascension to the FTC chairmanship came just hours after the Senate voted 69-28 to confirm her as a commissioner.
New York may not start enforcing a state broadband law requiring $15 monthly low-income plans that was to go into effect Tuesday, a federal judge ruled (in Pacer) Friday.
The FCC said Thursday AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon agreed to start providing vertical-location information on all calls to 911 nationwide within seven days, to implement compliance plans and each pay a $100,000 fine. The consent decrees settle investigations announced in April of whether the three met an April 3 deadline to provide the data in the 25 largest markets. The providers previously sought 18-month waivers. Compliance filings were due Wednesday.
President Joe Biden proposed substantial budget increases Friday for the FCC and FTC for FY 2022, in documents released Friday afternoon.