Industry and consumer groups clashed on whether the FCC should reclassify broadband internet access as a Title II service under the Communications Act in comments posted through Friday in docket 23-320 (see 2310190020). Commenters against reclassification warned that it would stifle innovation and competition. Supporters said the proposal would ensure consumers have equal access to broadband ahead of anticipated federal broadband deployment programs.

Twenty-seven Senate and House Democrats in a letter Friday urged the FCC to reinstate the collection of broadcaster equal employment opportunity data, seconding a Dec. 11 call for urgent action from Commissioner Geoffrey Starks and Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y. (see 2312110067). Although broadcasters were anticipating an EEO item since a 2021 Further NPRM (see 2306020056) and Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said one was in the works during the 2022 NAB Show (see 2204250067), it hasn’t materialized. “In 2021, after nearly 20 years, the FCC took the important step of soliciting comment on how to recommence this important data collection using Form 395-B,” said the lawmakers' letter. “It is now time for the Commission to follow through.”

Four lead Republicans on the House and Senate Commerce committees and their Communications subpanels raised major concerns Friday with the FCC’s “deeply misleading” claims about the affordable connectivity program's efficacy. Some lobbyists think this is a problem given the Biden administration’s push for Congress to appropriate an additional $6 billion to fully fund the initiative through the end of 2024 (see 2310250075). Estimates peg ACP as likely to exhaust its initial $14.2 billion tranche from the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act during the first half of 2024 (see 2309210060).

Rep. Kat Cammack of Florida and nine other House Commerce Committee Republicans had urged the FCC ahead of its Wednesday meeting against approving data breach notification rules that would sidestep a 2017 Congressional Review Act resolution of disapproval that rescinded similar regulations as part of the commission's 2016 ISP privacy order (see 1704030054). FCC Republican Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington raised the CRA issue in their dissents against the data breach rules that the commission approved Wednesday 3-2 (see 2312130019). "These rules are substantially the same as those Congress disapproved of" in the ISP privacy order, Cammack and the other Republicans said in a letter to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel released Wednesday. "Therefore, it would be unlawful for the FCC to adopt these new rules." They cited "requirements for notification, content of customer notification, and recordkeeping," which "largely mirror" elements of the 2016 rules. "Given these similarities, we are shocked that the FCC is attempting to revive these rules after Congress explicitly rejected them," the lawmakers said. When "Congress overrules an agency, that action is final; no agency has the power to ignore the plain meaning of a Congressional statute."

The FTC has pursued administrative and judicial remedies against Meta to protect consumers’ privacy, consistent with its “statutory mandate” under the FTC Act, said the commission’s motion Wednesday (docket 1:23-cv-03562) in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

U.S. District Judge John Koeltl for Southern New York in Manhattan denied a former Amazon third-party seller's motion to remand to New York Supreme Court its petition to vacate an arbitrator’s award in Amazon’s favor (see 2306130004), Koeltl’s signed memorandum opinion and order Tuesday (docket 1:23-cv-04869) said. The judge also denied Longyan Junkai Information Technology's motion to vacate the award but granted Amazon’s cross-motion to confirm the award. Longyan sought $461,000 in sales proceeds that Amazon seized, and the arbitrator let it keep, after Amazon deactivated the online store for allegedly selling counterfeit goods. “A party seeking to vacate an arbitration award faces a formidable task,” said the judge’s order. Longyan argued that the award should be vacated because it was irrational, in manifest disregard of the law and violated public policy. Longyan’s suggestion that the award was irrational “is not a valid basis for vacating an arbitration award” in the 2nd Circuit, the memorandum said. On the seller's manifest disregard claim, this isn't one of the exceedingly rare instances where an arbitrator acted in manifest disregard of the law, the order said. The judge also found that the award “does not run afoul of the public policy of any jurisdiction raised by the parties or basic notions of morality and justice,” it said.

NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson announced Wed. the launch of the agency's public consultation process related to its forthcoming report to President Joe Biden on the risks, benefits and regulatory approaches to AI foundation models, as directed in a Biden AI executive order (see 2310300056). Speaking at an event hosted by the Center for Democracy and Technology, Davidson said the report will focus on pragmatic AI policies rooted in technical, economic and legal realities of the technology. The Biden order gave the Commerce Department 270 days to get public input and deliver the AI recommendations. Davidson said.

After a span of frequent unanimity among the FCC commissioners, this week brought a spate of dissents from GOP commissioners, with no votes at Wednesday's open meeting coming after dissents the previous day on an order upholding a Wireless Bureau decision excluding SpaceX from participating in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund program (see 2312130004). At the December meeting, Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington raised the specter of the federal government increasing rate regulation in dissents against the MVPD early termination fees (ETF) NPRM. They complained that the data breach notification rules were an attempt to sidestep the Congressional Review Act.

Lake County, Montana, denies it violated the Telecommunications Act when it rejected Vertical Bridge’s applications to build a cell tower to remedy a gap in wireless coverage near the Finley Point area of Polson (see 2308170002), said the county’s answer Monday (docket 9:23-cv-00091) in U.S. District Court for Montana in Missoula. Vertical Bridge failed to show that the proposed tower was the least intrusive means of remedying the gap in coverage, or that it would remedy that gap, it said. Discovery in the case hasn’t begun, and the county is uncertain “what affirmative defenses may apply if this case goes to trial,” it said. Discovery, trial preparation and the facts of the case “may make some of the affirmative defenses applicable,” which is why they are being raised now “to avoid being waived,” it said.

Walmart, Cash App and “John Does” 1-10 “ignore the obvious holes in their inadequate and poorly enforced anti-fraud measures and readily facilitate fraudulent transfers that drain financial resources of the elderly and most vulnerable in our society,” alleged a class action Friday (docket 2:23-cv-10335) in U.S. District Court for Central California in Los Angeles.