U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos for Southern New York in Manhattan granted the FTC’s motion to strike defendants Iqvia and Propel Media’ s constitutional and equitable defenses with prejudice, said his signed opinion and order Tuesday (docket 1:23-cv-06188). The FTC argued that defenses asserted by Iqvia in the antitrust case should be dismissed on grounds that several raise constitutional challenges to the FTC’s powers that are “immaterial” and “impertinent” to the “narrow inquiry” that the court must undertake pursuant to the FTC Act in evaluating a claim for a preliminary injunction. The FTC seeks to enjoin Iqvia from completing its purchase of Propel Media (see 2310120051), saying the proposed acquisition would “substantially lessen competition by combining two of the top three providers of programmatic advertising targeted specifically at U.S.-based [healthcare professionals] on a one-to-one basis.” The court agreed with the FTC that the defenses are either “legally insufficient or inadequately pled and that the FTC would be prejudiced by their inclusion.” The state of the law in the Second Circuit is “well settled” that a laches defense is not available against the government when it is protecting the public interest, “and there can be no dispute that the FTC commenced this action to protect the public interest,” said the order. Defendants' asserted that the doctrine of equitable estoppel “binds the FTC to the claims, assertions, and admissions made by the U.S. Government about the digital advertising industry” in a suit pending against Google in the Eastern District of Virginia. But Ramos said that suit alleges that under sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act, Google is a monopolist in digital advertising and has significant market share as a demand-side platform. Equitable estoppel may apply where “(1) the party to be estopped makes a misrepresentation of fact to the other party with reason to believe that the other party will rely on it; (2) and the other party reasonably relies upon it; (3) to her detriment,” Ramos said, citing Kosakow v. New Rochelle Radiology Associates. But it is “well established” that “the Government may not be estopped on the same terms as any other litigant,” he said, and, citing Davila v. Lang, only “’in the most serious of circumstances’ when a party has reasonably and detrimentally relied on the government’s misrepresentation, and the government has engaged in affirmative misconduct.” Defendants here “do not provide any allegations making it plausible that they can satisfy the estoppel requirements -- even before accounting for the higher standard to invoke the defense against the government,” he said. Allowing the estoppel defense to remain “would prejudice the SEC by needlessly lengthening and complicating the discovery process and trial of this matter.”

Under a newly introduced bill imposing a pollution fee, importers of record would have to pay a tax based on the percentage of the value of the imported good and calculated on the difference between the pollution intensity of that good's production in the country it's manufactured in and domestic production.

The wireless communications industry opposes Utah's allowing phone subscriber information to be used to identify and verify the ages of social media users, CTIA State Legislative Affairs Director Jake Lestock told Utah Commerce Department officials Wednesday. Utah’s Consumer Protection Division held a public hearing on proposed rules for the Utah Social Media Regulation Act. The state legislature passed the bill in March. The new law went into effect in May, but enforcement doesn’t begin until March 2024. CTIA supports the intentions of the underlying law and rulemaking but has a “very narrow concern” about subscriber data being used to verify users. It’s “not appropriate for numerous reasons,” including “regulatory considerations, for mobile subscriber data to be used to verify identity, age and familial relationships,” said Lestock. The public has until Feb. 5 to comment on the proposed rules.

A recent ruling by a U.K. appellate court “sent the sanctions legal community into a bit of a tailspin” after it appeared to pave the way for the government to treat every Russian public and private entity as a sanctioned party, said Daniel Martin, a sanctions lawyer with HFW. Although the U.K. has since clarified that its sanctions aren’t necessarily meant to apply to every Russian company, Martin said questions remain, including whether banks now will be even less willing to handle Russia-related transactions, whether U.K. lawyers will continue to be able to participate in Russian-related proceedings, and whether similar logic could apply to U.K. sanctions against other countries.

A recent ruling by a U.K. appellate court “sent the sanctions legal community into a bit of a tailspin” after it appeared to pave the way for the government to treat every Russian public and private entity as a sanctioned party, said Daniel Martin, a sanctions lawyer with HFW. Although the U.K. has since clarified that its sanctions aren’t necessarily meant to apply to every Russian company, Martin said questions remain, including whether banks now will be even less willing to handle Russia-related transactions, whether U.K. lawyers will continue to be able to participate in Russian-related proceedings, and whether similar logic could apply to U.K. sanctions against other countries.

Comcast, Mediacom and Verizon extended broadband to 5,859 Delaware homes and businesses in mainly rural areas in the past 12 months, with American Rescue Plan Act funding, Gov. John Carney (D) said Thursday. The state expects to reach another 372 locations in the next few months, said Carney’s office: When complete, Delaware will have spent $33 million of ARPA money. Competitors last year raised concerns with Delaware limiting eligibility for ARPA funding to big ISPs with existing cable franchises (see 2204090003). Meanwhile in Michigan, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) announced $203 million awarded in the first round of the state’s Realizing Opportunity with Broadband Infrastructure Networks grant program. With money from the U.S. Treasury's Capital Projects Fund, the grants will connect 70,000 unserved homes and businesses to fiber, Whitmer said. The state awarded 18 projects from nine applicants, which put up $202 million in total matching funds.

ADT Solar “specifically denies” plaintiff Casey Bertram’s class-action allegations that it has violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, that Bertram “is entitled to bring this action on behalf of any class," or that he meets any of the requirements of Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, said ADT’s answer Wednesday (docket 2:23-cv-02206) in U.S. District Court for Central Illinois in Urbana. Bertram’s Sept. 22 complaint alleges ADT made at least four telemarketing calls to his residential number, despite that number having been listed on the national do not call registry since November 2005 (see 2309240001). But the complaint fails to state a claim on which relief can be granted because ADT had “the prior express written consent” with Bertram and each of his putative class members to make the calls, said ADT’s answer. To the extent that Bertram seeks treble damages for knowing and willful violations of the TCPA, “it violates ADT’s rights to protection against excessive fines, and equal protection and procedural and substantive due process” under the Fifth and 14th amendments, it said. “ADT expressly reserves the right to raise additional affirmative or other defenses that may be established by discovery and the evidence in this case,” said its answer. It asks the court to enter a judgment dismissing the complaint in its entirety with prejudice and awarding ADT its court costs and reasonable attorneys’ fees.

A bipartisan group of nine senators sent a letter to the commerce and energy secretaries and the U.S. trade representative opposing a potential critical minerals deal between the U.S. and Indonesia.

Broadband officials and experts raised concerns Wednesday about the role of railroad crossings in broadband deployment. Panelists during a Broadband Breakfast webinar cited delays in right-of-way application decisions from railroad owners as one of the main obstacles and backed establishing a national framework to address the issue as states prepare to dole out funding through NTIA's broadband, equity, access and deployment program and other federal funding.

The FCC released drafts Wednesday on items it will address at the commissioners' Nov. 15 open meeting, headlined by digital discrimination rules and an order on providing survivors of domestic violence with safe and affordable access to communications. Other items on the agenda include the adoption of digital discrimination rules, the use of AI in fighting robocalls, SIM swap and port-out fraud and amateur radio changes. Commissioners will also consider a declaratory ruling and memorandum opinion in response to a 2022 petition by Minnesota Independent Equal Access Corp. (MIEAC) seeking relief from dominant carrier regulation of its interstate switched access service.