The Senate Commerce Committee is considering a potential markup for bipartisan children’s privacy legislation introduced last week (see 2202160055), Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., told us Thursday.
A federal judge mulled Thursday whether Maryland’s digital ad tax is in fact a penalty on big tech. At virtual oral argument, U.S. District Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby in Baltimore weighed jurisdictional issues on the challenge by U.S. Chamber of Commerce, NetChoice Internet Association and Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) (case 21-cv-00410).
Expect the Senate Commerce Committee to mark up bipartisan legislation introduced Wednesday that’s meant to improve child safety online, Senate Consumer Protection Subcommittee Chairman Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and ranking member Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., told reporters.
Aureon will “continue to work with” the FCC Wireline Bureau on developing a potential refund plan, it told bureau staff in recent meetings, per ex parte filings last week in docket 18-60. The centralized equal access provider also discussed the information it would provide to the bureau about its switched transport tariff rate. Commissioners will consider an order during its Friday meeting that would require Aureon to submit certain information the bureau would need to calculate refunds to customers that paid unlawful charges March 1, 2018, through October 14, 2019 (see 2201280065).
NTIA stakeholders will watch a Wednesday House Communications Subcommittee NTIA oversight hearing for any signs of lawmakers’ interest in pursuing legislation to revamp the agency, amid an uneven Senate appetite for such measures. NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson, who has led NTIA for just over a month, is likely to face questions about his vision for the agency’s disbursal of connectivity money under its control from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and COVID-19 aid measures. The hearing is likely to also focus on the NTIA-FCC commitment to improve the two agencies’ coordination on spectrum policy (see 2202150001). The hearing will begin at noon EST. It’s House Communications’ first NTIA oversight hearing since 2018 (see 1803060048).
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit should not grant a stay of proceedings in a lawsuit challenging the Commerce Department's particular market situation in an antidumping duty sales-below-cost test because the defendants seeking the stay haven't shown they're likely to succeed in the case, plaintiff-appellees Dong-A Steel Co. and Kukje Steel Co. said in a Feb. 14 brief. A trio of defendant-appellants -- Atlas Tube, Searing Industries and Nucor Tubular Products -- had requested a stay while the Federal Circuit wraps up another case wherein Welspun Tubular requested a full court rehearing over an identical question, but the Federal Circuit is unlikely to grant the rehearing or overturn its earlier decision, Dong-A and Kukje said (Dong-A Steel Company v. United States, Fed. Cir. #21-2153).
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld the FCC's 2021 changes to over-the-air reception devices (OTARD) rules in a case brought by Children’s Health Defense (CHD) and four individuals. Judge Raymond Randolph said Friday the decision was a close call in the FCC’s assertion of authority over notice requirements. CHD is considering whether to seek rehearing.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska permitted an amicus brief to be filed in a case brought by two shipping companies contesting hefty Jones Act penalties over their shipments of fish from Alaska to the East Coast of the U.S. The brief from logistics company Lineage Logistics Holdings was permitted despite opposition from the Department of Justice, which argued that the brief does not raise any new issues (Kloosterboer International Forwarding LLC v. United States, D. Alaska #3:21-00198).
Industry groups pressed NTIA to give states maximum flexibility in awarding the billions of forthcoming dollars from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, as the agency prepares to roll out program rules for the broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) and middle-mile programs, in comments we reviewed (see 2202070053). The agency made most of the more than 750 comments it received available Wednesday.
Florida House Commerce Committee members backed a privacy bill containing a private right of action (PRA) unanimously and on a bipartisan basis at a livestreamed Thursday hearing. Possible litigation and compliance costs from the comprehensive bill aren’t concerning enough to vote no, said committee members. Bipartisan policymaking can still happen in state legislatures, unlike in Congress, said Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser (D) on a Freedom of Privacy Forum webinar later that day.