WASHINGTON—A three-judge panel on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed its rejection of a Federal Communications Commission decision pre-empting states from regulating line items on mobile-phone bills.
However, the panel clarified their July 31 opinion by specifically vacating the wireless pre-emption portion of the FCC decision and remanding the agency’s truth-in-billing order to the commission.
Still pending is a wireless industry petition asking the full 11th Circuit to rehear the case. In addition, it appears parties can now ask the same three-judge panel to rehear the modified 11th Circuit truth-in-billing decision. The FCC has the option of next asking the Supreme Court to review the lower court ruling.
In a separate wireless pre-emption case, the Supreme Court is expected to decide—perhaps this week—whether to take an appeal filed by Minnesota Attorney General Mike Hatch on a wireless consumer law struck down by the 8th Circuit on federal pre-emption grounds.
Before adjourning for midterm elections, Congress failed to pass a telecom reform bill that would have repealed state jurisdiction of terms and conditions of mobile-phone service.
The National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates and the Vermont Public Service Board appealed the FCC’s truth-in-billing ruling in 2005.
