Court Denies CPUC, ISP Motions in Data Disclosure Case

San Francisco to stop the California Public Utilities Commission from enforcing a May 3 ruling compelling ISPs to disclose subscriber data to The Utility Reform Network (TURN) or other third parties as part of a state investigation of market competition (see 1610240017). The CPUC’s decision to disclose data to third parties under a protective order “does not, in itself, conflict with federal policy,” Judge Vince Chhabria ruled in the Thursday order (in Pacer). But the protective order must be strong, and the CPUC and TURN “have not yet demonstrated that the protective order adequately guards against public disclosure of commercially sensitive data that would cause competitive harm to the companies,” he said. “If it does not adequately guard against this type of disclosure, there is at least a possibility it could be preempted.” The judge scheduled a telephonic case management conference for Nov. 22 at 2:30 p.m. to discuss how to adjudicate that remaining issue and asked parties to submit statements on the issue by Nov. 15. TURN supports the ruling because it "should help the CPUC and other state commissions conduct meaningful investigations to ensure its telecom customers have fair and meaningful access to high quality telecom services," emailed TURN Staff Attorney Christine Mailloux. "We take confidentiality seriously and are confident that the CPUC's process more than adequately protects carrier data." The California commission "will respond to the court as requested," a CPUC spokeswoman said.