A federal appeals court has ruled that secret business documents related to the proposed merger between AT&T and DirecTV don’t need to be disclosed.
The Federal Communications Commission said previously that
confidential business information involving the relationships
between content producers and DirecTV and similar television
service providers should be open for the public to analyze.
CBS, Viacom and Disney took aim at the FCC’s request, however,
and brought the case to the United States Court of Appeals for
the District of Columbia. There, on Friday this week, Circuit
Judge David Tatel quashed the FCC’s demands and sided with the
producers who insisted that publishing the contracts would “cause
substantial harm” to their businesses “and the highly competitive
programming marketplace in which they operate.”
DC Circ. Shoots Down FCC Merger-Review Disclosure Order http://t.co/Zlo5GB91l3
— Anthony Glosson (@glossontech) May 8, 2015
In response, the DC Circuit said it did not believe the FCC had
adequately proved why disclosure to the public was
“necessary” to the agency in determining whether or not
to approve the $48.9 billion proposed merger.
“[T]to justify disclosure, the information must be
‘necessary’ to the Commission’s review process. Otherwise,
Congress and the Commission have decided, the risk to the
affected businesses will not be worth it,” the motion reads
in part. According to the appeals court, the FCC’s request does
not meet this requirement.
READ MORE: AT&T to buy DirecTV for $48.5 billion in mega acquisition
“We share petitioners’ apprehension about a process that puts
tremendous pressure on the commission, the parties and this court
to get their ducks in a row in a short time,” the court said
in its decision. “In our view, the commission has failed to
make its case.”
In response to the ruling, a spokesperson for FCC said the agency
was “studying the opinion now and considering the options
available to the commission.”
Meanwhile, Dennis Wharton, a spokesman for the National
Association of Broadcasters, said in a statement: “We are
delighted the court sided with broadcast networks and NAB in
protecting highly confidential information from being widely
disseminated during merger reviews.”