A federal judge in Georgia threw out an AT&T wireless spamming lawsuit against a vacation timeshare broker on grounds that AT&T failed to prove the broker was the party responsible for flooding AT&T customers’ cellphones with spam text messages. AT&T told the U.S. District Court, Atlanta, that C&C Global Enterprises sent a flood of spam text messages through its wireless network to its customers, violating U.S. and Georgia anti-spam and consumer protection laws (Case 1:06-CV-2733-TWT). The defendants sought dismissal, saying AT&T sued the wrong party. They said they are not corporate residents of Georgia and bought their Georgia sales leads from third parties. They said they never knowingly accepted sales leads whose pursuit would violate anti-spam or consumer laws. The court said AT&T failed to make a substantial case against C&C’s claim that it was an unknowing recipient of unlawful sales leads provided by others.
The FCC should revise an April order on telecom carrier use of customer proprietary network information (CPNI) and other customer information (CD April 3 p10), The United States Telecom Association (USTelecom) and CTIA said in separate petitions for reconsideration. USTelecom said the order seems to assume, in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), that carriers are at fault when a pretexter obtains protected information. CTIA took exception to a finding in the order that carriers inadequately protect CPNI.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued an ABI administrative message announcing that the deployment of ACE Entry Summary, Accounts, and Revenue A1 has been delayed until August 25, 2007.
The Department of Homeland Security has issued a news release announcing that 29 defendants in New York, New Jersey and California have been charged with conspiracy to smuggle over 950 shipments, both counterfeit and authentic, following a 19 month investigation by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Cable operators not granted last-minute waivers of a rule barring them from shipping set-top boxes with integrated conditional access features are weighing their options in the wake of the Media Bureau’s late Friday action, some said. The Bureau temporarily waived the rule, which requires set- top boxes to support separable security like CableCARDs, for pay-TV providers including Verizon, Qwest and some cable operators who operate or have pledged to operator all-digital systems before broadcasters’ DTV transition (CD June 29 Special Bulletin p1) or (CED June 29 Special Bulletin p1). It denied another batch of requests, giving some operators until September to get into compliance.
Cable operators not granted last-minute waivers of a rule barring them from shipping set-top boxes with integrated conditional access features are weighing their options in the wake of the Media Bureau’s late Friday action, some said.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted to its Web site various materials related to presentations made at the June 20-22, 2007 meeting of the Trade Support Network (TSN).
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted a notice to its Web site announcing that it will be holding the Automated Commercial Environment Exchange VI conference in Brooklyn, NY on July 30 - August 1, 2007.
According to numerous press and government reports, China announced its decision to cut or do away with value-added tax rebates for exports of more than 2,800 commodities, effective July 1, 2007. This change will affect the profit margins of many industries, including energy and resource intensive products such as cement, fertilizer and non-ferrous metals, as well as products that cause trade frictions, such as garments, toys, steel products and motorcycles.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted to its Web site a notice announcing that it has completed the necessary programming changes for automated filing through the Automated Broker Interface (ABI) for the new textile provision and "abundant supply" apparel provision recently added to the African Growth and Opportunity Act for lesser developed beneficiary countries (LDBCs). CBP states that claims for preferential tariff treatment under the new AGOA provision in HTS 9819.15.10 (denim) for qualifying merchandise entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption on or after October 1, 2006 may be filed via ABI.