The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of May 4-10:
An FCC order that would have let participants in the commission's AT&T/DirecTV transaction proceeding review confidential programming and retransmission consent contract data is “substantively and procedurally flawed,” U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Judge David Tatel said in a unanimous opinion in CBS et al. v. FCC, vacating the order. The Comcast/Time Warner Cable proceeding had been part of the case, but that portion was rendered moot by the collapse of that deal. The court loss is seen as putting the FCC in a difficult position in its review of AT&T/DirecTV, industry officials connected with the court proceeding told us. Though the opinion leaves the door open for the FCC to issue a new protective order, doing so could further delay AT&T/DirecTV, while not doing so could expose an agency decision approving the deal to court challenge, said industry officials.
An FCC order that would have let participants in the commission's AT&T/DirecTV transaction proceeding review confidential programming and retransmission consent contract data is “substantively and procedurally flawed,” U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Judge David Tatel said in a unanimous opinion in CBS et al. v. FCC, vacating the order. The Comcast/Time Warner Cable proceeding had been part of the case, but that portion was rendered moot by the collapse of that deal. The court loss is seen as putting the FCC in a difficult position in its review of AT&T/DirecTV, industry officials connected with the court proceeding told us. Though the opinion leaves the door open for the FCC to issue a new protective order, doing so could further delay AT&T/DirecTV, while not doing so could expose an agency decision approving the deal to court challenge, said industry officials.
The scope of an exemption for “finished merchandise” from antidumping and countervailing duties on aluminum extrusions from China is now becoming more clear as two court cases with the potential to shake up the Commerce Department’s finished merchandise definition are likely headed toward resolution. Commerce is now consistently using the same reasoning to find products made entirely of aluminum extrusions are subject to antidumping and countervailing duties. The agency’s newfound reliance on the actual language of the orders makes it more difficult for an importer to challenge that reasoning in court, said a lawyer who represents importers of aluminum products.
The FCC will start a proceeding on foreign broadcast ownership, in the wake of Monday evening's OK of Pandora's request it be allowed to exceed a 25 percent threshold (see 1505040065). Amid Republican commissioners' concern about the almost two-year process that led up to the declaratory ruling, industry lawyers expect the agency to begin a rulemaking soon on the waiver process for radio and TV stations. It may be an NPRM, said Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council senior adviser David Honig.
The FCC will start a proceeding on foreign broadcast ownership, in the wake of Monday evening's OK of Pandora's request it be allowed to exceed a 25 percent threshold (see 1505040065). Amid Republican commissioners' concern about the almost two-year process that led up to the declaratory ruling, industry lawyers expect the agency to begin a rulemaking soon on the waiver process for radio and TV stations. It may be an NPRM, said Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council senior adviser David Honig.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of April 27 - May 3:
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for April 27 - May 1 in case they were missed.
The Court of International Trade on May 1 dismissed an importers challenge of charges that it is circumventing antidumping duties, finding that the importer did not first fully argue its case at the Commerce Department (here). Commerce had found Ceramark Technology was circumventing the AD duty order on small diameter graphite electrodes from China by making 17-inch diameter electrodes that fell just outside the 16-inch maximum diameter in the scope of the AD duty order. According to Commerce, the change was minor enough that the electrodes should still be subject to AD duties. CIT at first sided with Ceramark, sending the anticircumvention determination back to Commerce in September so the agency could address Ceramark’s argument that the companies that originally requested the AD duties had chosen not to cover 17-inch diameter electrodes. However, after Commerce issued its redetermination making new arguments in favor of its finding of circumvention, Ceramark did not file a brief responding to the agency. As a result, the company did not fully argue its case at the administrative level and is not entitled to a judicial review of its case, said CIT.
Importers cannot be sued for False Claims Act violations related to failure to pay marking duties, said the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania as it denied a bid to reignite a whistleblower lawsuit from a company founded specifically to conduct "research and analysis on customs fraud" (here). The False Claims Act only applies to a false claim made to avoid an already existing obligation, while the obligation to pay marking duties is nonexistent until it is created by the failure to mark, said the court.