The Department of Justice’s (DOJ) attempt to reverse the AT&T/Time Warner merger received some help on Monday, August 13, from an unexpected source: the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FCC previously allowed AT&T to buy Time Warner without having to undergo a lengthy public-interest review, despite pushback from Democrats in the Senate and FCC. The DOJ fought the merger alone, ultimately losing a court ruling that allowed AT&T to complete the acquisition.
The DOJ appealed that court ruling last month, and on Monday the FCC gave the DOJ’s case a small boost. The ruling involved an incorrect conclusion, the FCC stated in its court brief, which was filed at the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. “While the Commission takes no position on the relevance of any document in this case, it is concerned that two of the rationales supplied by the district court for discounting the probative value of submissions made to the FCC could reflect a misunderstanding of Commission procedures,” the FCC wrote.
AT&T’s filings with the FCC are required to be truthful even when the company is trying to affect a competitor’s business, the FCC wrote.
“[T]he Commission’s rules require all regulated parties—whether applicants seeking to transfer licenses in connection with a proposed merger or competitors who oppose the merger—to abide by the same standard of truthfulness in adjudicatory pro
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