The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has proposed fines totaling hundreds of millions of dollars over the last two years, but hasn't collected a penny of that money, and several lawmakers, including Oregon Republican Rep. Greg Walden, want to know why.
"If an enormous fine is announced and it's never prosecuted, it makes you wonder what's the purpose?" Walden, who chairs the House Telecom Subcommittee told Politico.
"The question is, are they just after headlines or some sort of performance metric? I don't know."
The fines have included $100 million against AT&T this summer for throttling unlimited data plans, roughly $100 million against a dozen companies for charges they defrauded the Lifeline phone subsidy program, and $35 million against a Chinese company that was selling illegal wireless jamming equipment.
Companies have up to 30 days to either pay or challenge a fine, but still, the FCC's collections process is cumbersome, and the fine isn't officially due until the investigation is completed, which can take years.
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2 comments:
I bet they'd be quick to seize bank accounts, property and other assets, if it was an individual citizen or even a small business.
Bingo, Miss Claudia.
TWO SETS OF LAWS, one for the masters and one for the serfs.
Remember -- these government officials work for the people, but get paid a lot more on their side job, which is plainly and painfully obvious. I'll bet no one pays and no one goes to jail.
Think about that. If 99% of "we, the people" scammed a group of people out of, say, $75 million dollars and they had us dead to right,
we'd be writing appeal letters from prison.
"Corporations are people" is what the government has said. If they are, which "people" are going to jail for being caught purposely cheating their customers (illegally so....)?
Two sets of laws. It's getting worse every day.
Keep cheering.
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