AT&T can’t keep a shareholder’s net neutrality proposal off its...
AT&T can’t keep a shareholder’s net neutrality proposal off its 2012 proxy statement, according to an SEC letter dated Feb. 10. The SEC rejected the request by AT&T to exclude the proposal, which asks that the company “publicly commit to…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
operate its wireless broadband network consistent with network neutrality principles -- i.e., operate a neutral network with neutral routing along the company’s wireless infrastructure such that the company does not privilege, degrade or prioritize any packet transmitted over its wireless infrastructure based on its source, ownership or destination.” AT&T asked the agency for guidance on whether it could exclude the proposal, arguing it was inherently vague and indefinite, and that it didn’t deal with a matter “relating to the company’s ordinary business operations.” The SEC Office of Chief Counsel disagreed, saying it was “unable to concur” with AT&T’s positions. “In view of the sustained public debate over the last several years concerning net neutrality and the Internet and the increasing recognition that the issue raises significant policy considerations, we do not believe that AT&T may omit the proposal from its proxy materials,” the counsel wrote. “Net neutrality is the free speech issue of our time and today’s decision by the SEC was a big win in the fight to maintain a free and open Internet,” said Senator Al Franken, D-Minn. Franken had co-written a Jan. 31 letter to SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro with four other senators, urging the commission to deny the company’s exclusion requests.