At its November 2017 Open Commission Meeting today, the FCC voted to adopt a Report and Order, Declaratory Ruling, and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in its wireline broadband deployment docket (“Wireline R&O” and...more
On September 18, 2017, the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) that would significantly change the procedural rules governing formal pole attachment complaint...more
In the first decision to consider the legality of a “one touch” make-ready ordinance, a federal district court in Kentucky upheld a City of Louisville law authorizing new attachers to utility poles to rearrange the pole...more
On Monday, July 31, 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, in a unanimous opinion, affirmed the FCC’s November 2015 Order on Reconsideration closing the “telecom formula loophole” to ensure that pole...more
On April 21, 2017, the Federal Communications Commission (“Commission”) released its final version of the combined Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, Notice of Inquiry and Request for Comment in the matter of Accelerating...more
It has been widely reported that VIZIO, Inc., a large television manufacturer, settled a Complaint brought by the FTC and the Attorney General of New Jersey for $2.2 million for alleged unfair and deceptive acts and practices...more
On Nov. 2, 2016, the FCC released its long-awaited broadband privacy Order and rules by a 3-2 vote. The Order comes nearly 18 months after the Commission moved to reclassify broadband internet access service (“BIAS”) as a...more
11/11/2016
/ Breach Notification Rule ,
Broadband ,
Communications Act of 1934 ,
Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI) ,
Data Breach ,
Data Security ,
FCC ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Preemption ,
Section 222 ,
Telecommunications
In a decision that could significantly impact the scope of the Federal Trade Commission’s consumer protection authority under Section 5 of the FTC Act, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled on August 29, 2016,...more
Yesterday the Sixth Circuit granted two petitions for review in The State of Tennessee et al. v. FCC and issued its opinion reversing the FCC’s order that preempted the laws of Tennessee and North Carolina that limited the...more
On June 27, 2016, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit became the latest appellate court to weigh how the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA or “the Act”) – a 1988 statute meant to protect consumer privacy by...more
It seems likely that one or more Petitioners in the consolidated case USTA v. FCC will seek review, either en banc or in the Supreme Court, of the D.C. Circuit’s decision released on June 14th. (DWT’s detailed advisory is...more
On May 10, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced it had approved an order with General Workings, Inc., d/b/a “Vulcun,” settling charges that the company violated the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTC Act) when it...more
Today the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rejected multiple Petitions for Review and upheld the FCC’s Open Internet Order. That order reclassified wired and mobile broadband Internet access services as...more
The U.S. Supreme Court recently issued its much-anticipated ruling in Spokeo v. Robins, in which the Court considered whether Congress can confer Article III standing on a plaintiff to bring an action based on an alleged...more
When the Supreme Court granted certiorari in Spokeo v. Robins, it was clear that a ruling in the case would have significant implications for litigation under privacy statutes. The issue before the Court was whether Congress...more
On April 29, 2016, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit handed down its widely anticipated opinion in Yershov v. Gannett Satellite Information Network, Inc., in which it expanded the reach of the Video Privacy...more
5/13/2016
/ Actual Damages ,
Amended Legislation ,
Class Action ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
GPS ,
Mobile Apps ,
Persistent Identifiers ,
Personal Data ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Subscribers ,
Video Privacy Protection Act
As we have previously advised, the FCC’s proposed rulemaking to “protect the privacy of customers of broadband and other telecommunications services” (the “NPRM”) proposes sweeping changes to the ways that Internet Service...more
4/27/2016
/ Broadband ,
Cable Operators ,
Communications Act of 1934 ,
Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI) ,
Data Security ,
FCC ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) ,
NPRM ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Section 222 ,
Telecommunications
Recent amendments to the State’s data breach statute give a hard deadline for a business to provide consumer notice, removes encryption safe harbor, exempts entities that are subject to the Health Insurance Portability and...more
4/21/2016
/ Cyber Attacks ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Breach ,
Encryption ,
Gramm-Leach-Blilely Act ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
HITECH Act ,
Incident Response Plans ,
New Legislation ,
Notification Requirements ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Safe Harbors
Late this afternoon the FCC adopted a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) proposing new rules governing the privacy practices of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) at its monthly open meeting, which was delayed several times...more
A recent ruling by the United States Supreme Court held that a defendant cannot terminate a putative class action by offering the representative plaintiff complete relief, rejecting some courts’ dismissals of class action...more
In the first ruling rebuking the Federal Trade Commission’s cybersecurity enforcement efforts, the FTC’s head administrative law judge dismissed the FTC’s complaint against LabMD, Inc., on November 13, stating that...more
Digital content and media providers got some good news from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in October when the court held that plaintiffs must be “subscribers” and not just users of a provider’s service to...more
As a privacy litigator, I could not help but observe an apparent contradiction in the way the Third Circuit allowed the FTC to pursue Wyndham Hotels for cybersecurity breaches under the FTC Act, but Judge Berman (SDNY)...more
9/11/2015
/ Cyber Attacks ,
Cyber Crimes ,
Cyber Threats ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Breach ,
Data Protection ,
Data Security ,
Deflategate ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FTC v Wyndham ,
Hackers ,
New England Patriots ,
NFL ,
Tom Brady ,
Work Suspensions ,
Wyndham
As part of the 2015 Open Internet Order (“Order”), the FCC adopted rules enabling regulated entities to seek advisory opinions from the Enforcement Bureau regarding the application of the Open Internet rules to proposed...more
Reigniting their previous bipartisan attempts to amend the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and add greater privacy protections for children and younger teens, U.S. Senator Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Joe...more