The February FCC net neutrality order may provide momentum to any congressional proposal to end the FTC’s common carrier exemption, industry observers told us. That exemption precludes FTC Act Section 5 jurisdiction over common carriers subject to the Communications Act, and the FCC order reclassifies broadband as a common carrier service under Title II of the Communications Act, potentially upsetting jurisdictional boundaries. Any proposal may get entangled in net neutrality, complicating the issue in a messy legislative battlefield over agency authority for the FCC and FTC, observers said.

The February FCC net neutrality order may provide momentum to any congressional proposal to end the FTC’s common carrier exemption, industry observers told us. That exemption precludes FTC Act Section 5 jurisdiction over common carriers subject to the Communications Act, and the FCC order reclassifies broadband as a common carrier service under Title II of the Communications Act, potentially upsetting jurisdictional boundaries. Any proposal may get entangled in net neutrality, complicating the issue in a messy legislative battlefield over agency authority for the FCC and FTC, observers said.

The FCC net neutrality order is to be published in the Federal Register Monday. That means the FCC will know soon which major players will challenge the order in court, industry officials said Friday. CTIA, USTelecom and possibly NCTA are expected to lead the charge against the order, which reclassifies broadband as a Title II service under the Communications Act (see 1503300055).

The FCC net neutrality order is to be published in the Federal Register Monday. That means the FCC will know soon which major players will challenge the order in court, industry officials said Friday. CTIA, USTelecom and possibly NCTA are expected to lead the charge against the order, which reclassifies broadband as a Title II service under the Communications Act (see 1503300055).

Increased trade through the Trans-Pacific Partnership would further weaken the Food and Drug Administration’s regulation of seafood imports, said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., in a March 9 letter to U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman (here). DeLauro demanded an explanation from USTR on how the Obama administration aims to make sure FDA will have enough funding to protect Americans from harmful seafood imports, particularly from Vietnam and Malaysia. Those countries fall far short of U.S. regulatory standards, and the FDA has turned back hundreds of Vietnamese and Malaysian seafood shipments over the past year, said DeLauro.

Rising programming costs are hurting pay-TV providers as independent networks are expected to face an increasingly harder time getting carriage, experts said in interviews this week. Some expect pay-TV bills to continue rising faster than inflation, while others said those fears are overblown. Over-the-top options are projected by some to eventually reduce user costs by breaking the cable bundle.

Rising programming costs are hurting pay-TV providers as independent networks are expected to face an increasingly harder time getting carriage, experts said in interviews this week. Some expect pay-TV bills to continue rising faster than inflation, while others said those fears are overblown. Over-the-top options are projected by some to eventually reduce user costs by breaking the cable bundle.

Beyond the usual difficulty in getting the Supreme Court to take a case, petitions (see 1504080050) seeking review of the 2011 USF/intercarrier compensation order (see 1405270045) face some obstacles, former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt and other telecom attorneys told us. U.S. Cellular’s argument that the net neutrality order adds to the urgency to deal with the agency’s Telecommunications Act 706 authority through the Universal Service Fund/ICC case is unlikely to move justices, they said.

The FCC Media Bureau rejected a joint request from NAB and Public Knowledge and won’t delay Thursday’s deadline for comments on a proposal to make it a rebuttable presumption that cable companies face effective competition, the bureau said in an order Tuesday. Extending the comment deadlines for the proceeding would “render it impossible” for the FCC to meet a June 2 deadline imposed on the commission by the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act Reauthorization, it said. STELAR requires the FCC to provide relief from effective competition rules for smaller cable companies, but the proposed solution is much broader, NAB and Public Knowledge said (see 1503300062). “The Commission has determined that the most administratively efficient approach in this proceeding is to consider all issues raised in the NPRM,” the order said. NCTA and the American Cable Association submitted filings urging the bureau to reject the request from NAB and Public Knowledge. Comments are due Thursday, replies April 20.

Ten children’s and consumer advocacy groups filed a complaint with the FTC Tuesday, asking the agency to investigate Google’s YouTube for Kids app for its “unfair and deceptive practices,” said a news release from one of the groups, Consumer Watchdog. A 60-page letter to FTC Secretary Donald Clark details features of the app that the groups say “take advantage of children’s developmental vulnerabilities and violate long-standing media and advertising safeguards that protect children viewing television,” the news release said. Other groups that signed the letter are the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, Center for Digital Democracy, Center for Science in the Public Interest, Children Now, Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, Corporate Accountability International and Public Citizen.