The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has agreed to rehear a decision that had been issued by a three judge panel from that court which held that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) did not have jurisdiction to review the trade practices of common carriers even when providing non-common carrier services. The case under review involved an appeal of an FTC decision finding that AT&T had engaged in an unfair trade practice by throttling data speeds of customers who purchased unlimited data plans. The three judge panel reversed that decision after finding that the FTC’s enabling statute exempted common carriers from agency review. The FTC had argued unsuccessfully that the statute limited its authority only over common carrier services and did not apply to non-common carrier services that might be offered by common carrier entities.
