Pai, Rosenworcel Battle Over Consumer Complaints in 3-2 Application Fees Order

a streamlined schedule of application fees, paring down eight fee categories to five and reducing the total number of fees from 450 to 173. Rosenworcel said the order was largely “thoughtful and smart,” but she dissented in part based on its increasing the cost of filing “a formal consumer complaint” to $540. Commissioner Geoffrey Starks dissented in part as well. “I believe consumers should be able to avail themselves of this process, but a fee of this size is unjust and could easily deter them from doing so,” Rosenworcel said in a statement with the item. In his statement, Pai said the complaint form that she referenced “doesn’t exist.” The FCC has a two-track process wherein consumers file free informal complaints, while formal complaints cost a fee and “create a trial-like process to adjudicate a dispute and are not designed for nor used by consumers,” Pai said. The FCC’s consumer complaint website says consumers unsatisfied with the agency’s response to informal complaints can file formal ones but warns that parties filing formal complaints “usually are represented by lawyers or experts in communications law” and the FCC's procedural rules. Pai said no consumer filed a formal complaint in 2019 or 2020, but thousands of informal ones were filed. “Remember, in taking this step we’re following the law as set forth by Congress,” Pai said. Rosenworcel’s office didn’t comment. Rosenworcel and Pai disagreed about complaint fees in a 2018 order amending the complaint process and in the NPRM phase of Tuesday’s order, when Pai castigated Rosenworcel for not informing his office of her objections to the proposal until late in the process (see 2008260073).