DC Circuit Upholds FCC VRS Rate Order, Denying Sorenson, Dismissing VRSCA Petitions
A court affirmed an FCC video relay service order that updated rate tiers for VRS provider compensation. A unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit denied a petition from Sorenson Communications and dismissed a…
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Video Relay Services Consumer Association petition. The panel found the commission's justifications reasonable under Chevron deference and said VRSCA lacked standing. The FCC interprets an "efficiency mandate to permit consideration of both short- and long-term efficiency, including efficiency-promoting objectives other than the lowest possible price, such as service competition," said the opinion of Judge Thomas Griffith, backed by Judges Patricia Millett and Cornelia Pillard, in Sorenson v. FCC, No. 17-1198. "To promote the efficiency of the VRS market, the agency retained its tiered-rate system to prevent the market from devolving into a monopoly." The panel noted Sorenson controls 80 percent of the VRS market and the agency had concerns that a single rate tier could hurt smaller providers. Oral argument was May 7 (see 1805070045). Last July, a commission order set a four-tier VRS compensation structure for 2017-21 that cut the rate covering some calling minutes of Sorenson, the largest provider (see 1707060062). Sorenson unsuccessfully argued the tiered rates are incompatible with a Communications Act efficiency mandate. The panel said VRSCA failed to show it had standing, including by not disclosing it's fully funded by Sorenson. Representatives of Sorenson and VRSCA didn't comment.