October 2016

[Commentary] Communications providers who offer access to the Internet in our homes and on our phones have found a way to evade accountability by effectively locking the courtroom doors on their customers. They do it through the use of what are known as mandatory arbitration clauses, buried deep in the fine print of the contracts you have to sign in order to get Internet service. These clauses force you to sign away your right to go to court in the event of a dispute, in favor of a private arbitration process that is inherently biased towards corporations and offers no meaningful appeals process.

In an age where reliable and affordable Internet access is an absolute necessity, we believe that you shouldn’t have to give up your day in court to go online, either. That’s why we’re teaming up to try to eliminate mandatory arbitration clauses in telecom contracts. But whether it’s in the Senate (where Al has authored legislation that would ban these clauses) or at the Federal Communications Commission (where Mignon is leading the charge for a regulatory crackdown this month), your voice matters in this fight. After all, these are your rights at stake. If the issue of mandatory arbitration remains just another little-known way for corporations to take advantage of the little guy, it’ll be impossible to stop them. But if we raise awareness about this quiet threat to our rights and raise our voices in support of eliminating this unfair practice once and for all, we can strike a blow for justice and protect every American who goes online—which is pretty much all of us.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-IA) said that the proposed $86 billion merger between AT&T and Time Warner would get a thorough vetting in his committee. “This is the biggest deal of the year, combining one of the nation’s largest telecommunications providers with a media and entertainment giant," said Chairman Grassley. "It’s imperative that the antitrust regulators conduct a robust review of the proposed acquisition." "As the process moves forward, the Senate, and the Judiciary Committee, can and will conduct oversight and ask questions about the transaction, including a hearing to examine the impact on competition and consumers," he said.

David Goldman, chief telecom counsel for the House Commerce Committee Democrats, says his boss, Ranking Member Frank Pallone (D-NJ), is all for harmonizing the Federal Communications Commission's and Federal Trade Commission's online privacy authority, but that means the FCC should proceed with its vote on strong new broadband privacy rules and Congress should give the FTC rulemaking authority so it can impose similarly strong rules on edge provider collection and sharing of data.

Ranking Member Pallone has been pushing the FCC to vote the rules amid ISP pushback and arguments the FCC should either not do so, or put its most recent version out for further comment. That last point was made in a panel session after the speech by TechFreedom President Berin Szóka, who said they were, to a degree "operating in ignorance" when talking about a proposal whose details they have not seen. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler did put out a fact sheet on the changes to his proposal, but did not seek public comment on it.