The FCC is firing back at AT&T today, stating that the statements that AT&T made to the FCC in years prior to the AT&T/Time Warner merger, should not have been ignored by Judge Richard Leon in the case with the Department of Justice. In the court brief on Monday, the FCC stated that this was an incorrect conclusion by Judge Leon. Stating “while the Commission takes no position on the relevance of any document in this case, it is concerned that two fo the rationales supplied by the district court for discounting the probative value of submissions made to the FCC could reflect a misunderstanding of Commission procedures.”
Essentially, the FCC is not taking either side in the case, but this court brief, that was filed at the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, does give the Justice Department’s case a bit more strength. The DOJ originally lost the case to block the merger of AT&T and Time Warner, and the two companies ended up completing the merger mere hours after Judge Leon gave his verdict. However, a few weeks ago, the Justice Department did file for an appeal on this case, and is attempting to get a do-over on this case. That is because the Justice Department did not seem ready for this case, while AT&T and Time Warner were.
If the appeal by the Justice Department does go through, it could force AT&T to undo the merger, that took nearly two years to actually complete. The Justice Department is pretty sure that it can win the case this time around and believes that the court “erred” on the decision in the case, the first time around. As Judge Leon ruled that the merger would not affect customers – when in fact, AT&T began raising rates about a week after the trial ended and the verdict was out.