Comcast, AT&T, Charter Oppose Incompas Motion to Modify Protective Orders of Past Deals

Comcast and others opposed an Incompas motion to modify FCC protective orders for reviews of past transactions. Incompas, which represents "direct competitors to Comcast," filed a motion asking that “interested commenters” in the open internet rulemaking "be permitted to review and use vast amounts of confidential and highly confidential information and data from those concluded adjudicatory proceedings, which it contends will 'strengthen the debate' and lead to a 'better' general rulemaking here," said a Comcast filing Thursday in docket 17-108. The motion "lacks merit and is an obvious -- and improper -- procedural tactic designed to delay and muddy consideration of the legal and policy issues relevant to the Commission’s [NPRM]." The transactions were: Charter Communications buying Time Warner Cable and Advance-Newhouse; Comcast/Time Warner Cable (which wasn't consummated); AT&T/DirecTV; Comcast/General Electric's NBC Universal. The "frivolous" Incompas motion appears "to be an improper end run around the protective orders governing the confidential materials at issue here," said an AT&T opposition posted Friday: "Both in-house and outside counsel in the merger proceedings at issue -- including INCOMPAS -- signed protective orders providing that 'Reviewing Parties ... agree ... not to use Confidential or Highly Confidential Information to seek disclosure in any other proceeding.' INCOMPAS' 'limited' motion requesting very specific and targeted categories of previously submitted documents and data raises serious questions as to whether INCOMPAS and its counsel are in fact 'us[ing]' the confidential materials they obtained as the basis for 'seek[ing] disclosure' in this quite different rulemaking proceeding." Charter also filed opposition. Incompas didn't comment.