The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 Thursday in South Dakota v. Wayfair that states can collect sales tax from out-of-state retailers, effectively reversing its earlier 1992 precedent in Quill v. North Dakota. Justice Anthony Kennedy led the opinion in favor of South Dakota, joined by Justices Samuel Alito, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas. Chief Justice John Roberts dissented along with Justices Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor. Several tech sector stakeholders told us they now believe it's critical for Congress to pass legislation to mitigate the effects. Oral argument was in April (see 1804170062).
Many media and telecom interests concerned about consolidation tell us Disney and Comcast's duel for Fox's non-broadcast assets (see 1806130036) presents equally unappealing options. Programmers, especially small ones, have concerns about either deal, Public Knowledge Senior Counsel John Bergmayer said. Disney/Fox would be "absolutely horrible," Comcast/Fox even worse, said American Cable Association President Matt Polka. Comcast rejected such assertions. Wednesday, Disney upped its bid, topping a competing one from Comcast (see 1806200015).
NTIA has made no big decisions on a spectrum strategy favoring federal incumbents or industry, Administrator David Redl said at a Telecommunications Industry Association event Thursday. More than anything, the agency is seeking balance, he said. Redl said it's looking closely at bidirectional sharing, in which federal agencies could also share commercial bands. Some in industry fear early signals are federal agencies largely won in their push for sharing versus exclusive-use licenses (see 1806200067).
FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said women should hold more positions in telecom, media and tech. "I hate when people say it's a pipeline problem" because it "absolves" managers of responsibility, she said at an FCBA event Wednesday. She largely stuck to familiar themes in Q&A with FCBA President Julie Kearney of CTA. Rosenworcel backed a "spectrum calendar" and closing the "homework gap," suggested T-Mobile's proposed buy of Sprint has a difficult case to make, and decried the spread of unjustified claims of "fake news." She voiced hope for "distributed ledger" technology as a possible spectrum-sharing solution.
An EU plan to require major content-sharing platforms to monitor users' uploads moved forward Wednesday. By 14-9, the European Parliament Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) approved a report responding to a 2016 European Commission proposal for a directive on copyright in the digital single market. The report, by Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Axel Voss, of Germany and the European People's Party, supports the EC's controversial calls for a new right (Article 11, the "neighboring" right, also called the "snippet tax") for online news publishers, and for large platforms to filter users' uploads to prevent copyright breaches (Article 13).
FirstNet is getting widespread use, from the deadly Memorial Day weekend flood in Ellicott City, Maryland, to wildfires in Texas, to planning for big events like the Boston Marathon, CEO Mike Poth said at the quarterly board meeting Wednesday. FirstNet said it passed a milestone in April, receiving its first payment from network partner AT&T.
There's room for Capitol Hill to enact national privacy legislation that wouldn't stifle the tech sector's ability to innovate or reduce profitability, industry experts said during a Tuesday evening Phoenix Center event. Lawmakers have been searching for a way forward on an overarching privacy bill amid the fallout over the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data breach, which drew pushes for bills ranging from the Balancing the Rights of Web Surfers Equally and Responsibly (Browser) Act (HR-2520) to a privacy bill of rights (see 1804100054, 1804130057, 1805110050 and 1806190077).
The AT&T/Time Warner verdict doesn't alter that Disney has an easier and quicker path to regulatory approval for buying Fox's nonbroadcast assets than Comcast does, Disney CEO Bob Iger said on an analyst call Wednesday after the company said it sweetened its offer for Fox's assets. Iger said Disney worked with regulatory authorities around the globe for the past six months "and made a lot of progress" toward approvals.
Congress could play a bigger role in safeguarding journalists' freedoms, while not in involving itself in the journalism business, even as the industry is struggling to find new business models, experts said on a state of the media panel Wednesday organized by Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H. Tegna CEO Dave Lougee said the business stresses hitting TV stations point to a need for more consolidation, but politics regarding Sinclair is drowning out those business realities.
FTC Chairman Joseph Simons plans to scrutinize ISPs and internet "platforms" as part of a broader agenda to update consumer protection and antitrust enforcement. "We're going to vigorously enforce our authority in this space," he told reporters Wednesday, when asked about reinstatement of FTC jurisdiction over telco and cable ISPs under FCC reclassification of broadband providers as not common carriers. Internet platforms, such as Amazon, Facebook and Google, also will draw attention due to their size, reach and potential for anticompetitive behavior, he said.