Public Knowledge and Media Access Project Accuse AT&T Of ‘Gamesmanship’ On Merger Application; Call
Public Knowledge and Media Access Project Accuse AT&T Of ‘Gamesmanship’ On Merger Application; Call
Public Knowledge and Media Access Project Accuse AT&T Of ‘Gamesmanship’ On Merger Application; Call

    Get Involved Today

    Public Knowledge (PK) and Media Access
    Project (MAP) said today that AT&T and T-Mobile were engaging in “litigation
    gamesmanship” in the companies’ attempt to withdraw their merger
    application from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). 

    In a filing with the FCC, the groups also
    said that the Commission’s order designating the transaction for a formal
    hearing should be released because “the public deserves for the
    Commission’s determinations to see the light of day.”

    The filing is here.

    The companies have said they have said the
    FCC has no authority to act on their withdrawal.  PK and MAP disagree.

    The companies have said publicly they
    aren’t withdrawing their application because they are reconfiguring their
    business deal, but
    “rather because they intend to seek a favorable decision in federal court,
    which the companies can then use to pressure the Commission to approve the
    merge,” according to the filing from PK and MAP.

    The groups added: 
    “This type of litigation gamesmanship wastes the resources of both
    the Commission and the federal court system. The Commission’s application
    dismissal rules are not designed to indulge this kind of behavior, and the
    Commission is well within its authority to protect the integrity of its
    procedures, deny the request, and move forward with its evidentiary
    investigation.”

    “AT&T must not be allowed to triumph through use
    of its bottomless war chest when the facts are so clearly against it. To allow
    AT&T to exhaust the far more limited resources of public interest opponents
    by withdrawing the application at the end of the process, only so that it can
    refile under more favorable conditions after its opponents have spent their
    resources, is clearly contrary to the public interest,” PK and MAP said.

    FCC rules not only allow the Commission wide latitude to determine
    what to do with the withdrawal application, they also allow the Commission to
    make public the voluminous order setting the takeover for a formal evidentiary
    hearing, PK and MAP said. They suggested that the Commission could issue an
    order releasing the FCC’s study of market conditions contained in the hearing
    order while at the same time requiring any future merger filings at the FCC
    from the companies be automatically designated for hearing while incorporating
    all of the evidence already filed.