9th Circuit Upholds FTC Authority Over Non-Carrier Activities of Common Carriers

On February 26, 2018, a unanimous 11-judge en banc panel of the 9th Circuit upheld the authority of the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) over the non “carrier” activities of a company with common carrier lines of business that are exempt from FTC jurisdiction.

Although the ruling allows the FTC to pursue deceptive practices claims against AT&T Mobility for allegedly throttling data speeds for customers with “unlimited” data plans, its greater impact is to close a potential regulatory “gap” that arguably left some companies exempt from the privacy and broadband Internet regulatory regimes intended by the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) and the FTC.

Read the full analysis here.