Lynn Calkins is a Partner and Matthew Maddox is an
Associate in our
Washington D.C. office
On June 20, 2014, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated two
FCC regulations on phone call captioning technology designed for
the hearing impaired, holding that the rules were made arbitrarily
and capriciously in violation of the Administrative Procedures
Act.
As explained in
our previous blog entry, Internet Protocol Captioned Telephone
Service (IP CTS) provider Sorenson Communications filed a petition
challenging FCC rules setting a $75 price floor for equipment and a
requirement that such equipment include a default captions-off
setting.
The court agreed with Sorenson that the Commission had no
evidence to support its conclusion that IP CTS technology is being
fraudulently used and that the rules were thus "intended to
defeat a bogeyman whose existence was never
verified[.]" Further, the Commission had no evidence that
a price floor would deter fraudulent use
