The Federal Election Commission further clarified its rules for making...
The Federal Election Commission further clarified its rules for making campaign contributions via text message, approving a rate structure sought by AT&T that’s lower than what AT&T charges for commercial content but high enough to guarantee a profit. AT&T proposed…
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a model under which carriers would impose a flat per message charge, for text donations of $1, $2, $5, $10, $15 and $20. “Customers who contribute via text message to political committees ‘reasonably will expect that most of their contribution is going to the political candidate or committee of their choice’ and ‘do not want a significant portion of their [contributions] siphoned off to the aggregators and wireless providers,'” said the FEC advisory opinion (http://xrl.us/bnqruq). “AT&T asserts that, if its wireless customers learn that AT&T and the connection aggregators are retaining a significant portion of their contributions, the customers will be dissatisfied with the transaction and will view AT&T unfavorably as a result.” The rates charged “will be ’substantially less’ than what AT&T charges for commercial content providers, but more than it charges for donations to charities,” the opinion said. “AT&T represents that it will calculate the proposed rates based on commercial factors, including the nature of the transactions, the volume of the transactions, the dollar amounts of the transactions, and the volume of work the transactions generate for AT&T’s call centers. AT&T represents that the same rates and rate structure would be charged to all aggregators representing political committees seeking to gain access to AT&T’s text messaging platform. AT&T also represents that these rates will be set to ensure that AT&T recovers all of the costs that it will incur in providing the service, plus a return.”