Real estate company Colony Ridge Development routinely sends ad or marketing text messages to residential phone numbers listed with the national do not call registry without “the prior express invitation or permission required” by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, alleged a class action Wednesday (docket 4:24-cv-02418) in U.S. District Court for Southern Texas in Houston. Plaintiff Eric Geaslin listed his cellphone number with the national DNC registry in December 2019, yet he received multiple text messages from Colony beginning in late 2022 and continuing through to the present, said the complaint. The Spanish-language text messages advertised properties for sale, but the Plantersville, Texas, resident didn’t recognize the sender, nor does he speak or read Spanish, it said. In light of allegations made by government regulators such as the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, Colony engages in a predatory business model through which it seeks to solicit Hispanic consumers to purchase land or property under unfavorable financial conditions, said the complaint. Geaslin estimates he received at least 20 ad or telemarketing text messages from Colony on his cellphone between 2022 and the present, it said. Geaslin suffered actual harm as a result of the text messages “in that he suffered an invasion of privacy, an intrusion into his life, and a private nuisance,” it said.
Adobe deceived consumers by hiding early termination fees for its Photoshop and Acrobat subscriptions, among others, and by not making it easy for them to cancel, alleged an FTC complaint Monday (docket 5:24-cv-03630) in U.S. District Court for Northern California in Oakland.
The FCC urged the 6th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court Friday to move the challenge to the FCC’s net neutrality order to the D.C. Circuit (docket 24-3450). The FCC also issued an order declining to stay the rules, which take effect July 22, pending judicial review.
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announces retirements of Mark Nadel, attorney-adviser, Wireline Bureau, and Diane Burstein, deputy chief, Consumer and Government Affairs Bureau … NAB announces election results, including newly elected to radio board: Collin Jones, Cumulus Media executive vice president-corporate strategy and development/Westwood One president, chair; Kevin Perry, Perry Publishing and Broadcasting president-CEO, first vice chair; and Leonard Wheeler, Mel Wheeler president, second vice chair; to television board: Lynn Beall, Tegna executive vice president-chief operating officer, media operations, first vice chair; Sinclair Broadcast Group CEO Chris Ripley, second vice chair; RaMona Alexander, American Spirit Media vice president-general manager, WDBD and corporate programming, third vice chair.; and to designated TV network seat on executive committee: Keith Murphy, Paramount senior vice president-regulatory counsel; NAB also appoints Pilar Ramos, TelevisaUnivision executive vice president-general counsel-corporate secretary, to fill vacancy on TelevisaUnivision’s television board.
LTD Broadband asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Wednesday to overturn the FCC's denial of its Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase (RDOF) I auction long-form application. It filed a partially redacted petition (docket 24-1017). LTD was the largest RDOF winner, receiving an award of roughly $1.3 billion to deploy broadband to 528,088 locations across more than a dozen states (see 2012070039).
Adell Broadcasting will bring legal action against Nexstar and Mission Broadcasting if Mission doesn’t accept the FCC’s conditions for approving Mission’s proposed $75 million buy of Adell’s WADL Mount Clemens, Michigan (see 2404240070), Adell CEO Kevin Adell told us in an interview Tuesday.
The National Religious Broadcasters and the American Family Association filed a joint petition for review asking that the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturn the FCC’s February Equal Employment Opportunity order. The EEO order requires that broadcasters file workforce diversity information with the agency using Form 395-B. The Media Bureau issued a public notice Monday announcing that the EEO order would take effect June 3 but said the compliance date hasn't yet been set because the information collection is still under the OMB Paperwork Reduction Act. The bureau will issue a subsequent PN announcing the compliance date, it said. The form was "suspended for 20 years for good reason and revived on highly questionable grounds,” NRB President Troy Miller said in a release late Friday. Requiring the information to be public and attributable to individual broadcasters, the FCC is “opening the door to third-party weaponization of the public file to target specific broadcast stations,” NRB said. The EEO order “violates the equal protection component of the Fifth Amendment and the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment,” said the brief petition. Bringing back Form 395-B exceeds the FCC’s authority and is “an abuse of discretion,” the order said. America First Legal Foundation, a litigation nonprofit led by Stephen Miller, adviser of former President Donald Trump, is representing NRB and AFA in the case. It often represents conservative causes and entities. The petition for review comes on top of two appeals of the order filed at the FCC by religious broadcasters and groups objecting to the planned updating of Form 395-B to recognize nonbinary gender (see 2405010070).
Despite advertising that consumers can “pay any bill” using its “purportedly vast payment ‘network of billers,’” third-party bill payment platform Doxo “has no relationship with the overwhelming majority of billers in its supposed ‘network,'” the FTC alleged in a Thursday complaint (docket 2:24-cv-00569) in U.S. District Court for Western Washington in Seattle. The lawsuit names Doxo, CEO Steve Shivers and Vice President Roger Parks.
Standard General and its founder Soohyung Kim filed a civil complaint Wednesday charging that Allen Media CEO Byron Allen, Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen and FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, along with lawmakers, unions and public interest groups, were partners in a conspiracy and race discrimination aimed at sinking Standard's $8.6 billion purchase of Tegna last year (see 2306010077). The filing was made in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. “The FCC Chairwoman and her personal staffer blocked the deal at the behest of Mr. Allen, who used business allies and six-figure political donations to destroy Mr. Kim’s chances of acquiring TEGNA,” the complaint said.
Vermont National Telephone (VTEL) is challenging the DOJ's move to dismiss fraud litigation against Dish Network and designated entities (DE) Northstar Wireless and SNR Wireless regarding 2015's AWS-3 auction (see 2403040052).