FCC vs. ATT
Team C
Law/531
December 12, 2013
Judge Greg Holder

FCC vs. AT&T
There are agencies that regulate businesses on the federal, state, and local levels. The law is designed to protect employees and the public from unsafe and immoral business behavior. As a manager, knowing the rules and regulation of these agencies will prevent your company from harmful acts to the public and save cost in legal fees and fines. The Freedom of Information Act provides public access to documents in the possession of federal administrative agencies. This is the act that AT&T hinged its case on with the FCC to utilize the personal privacy clause to exempt case disclosure from its competitors. This paper will highlight the details of the case and define the term “personal privacy”.
Case Details
“Personal privacy” is generally awarded to individuals to protect them from unwarranted invasion of privacy. Managers must manage the flow of information to and from their companies to protect trade secrets and their employees. The dispute in this case is whether a corporation has the same rights as an individual when personal privacy is applied. “The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) states that business agencies provide to the public records and documents upon request except specific statutory exemptions.” However, ATT argued that corporations are also entitled to personal privacy, because corporations are protected under the FOIA exemption 7(C) that relates to trade secrets. In this case, “the FCC and AT&T reached an agreement to pay a $500,000 without conceding liability and specified controls to ensure compliance is upheld.” Shortly after, “Comptel a competitor of AT&T asked for documents that AT&T had produced as a result of the investigation including information about its customers and business dealings”.

Managerial Concept AT&T was forthcoming in their wrongful act and agreed upon a reasonable solution to pay restitution and ensure that such act would not occur again. As a manager, the goal is to meet the requirements of the authoritative agency and conceal any trade secrets from competitors. However, the managers at Comptel used the regulations to access public records to its advantage. “The FCC decided that there is information that meets the guidelines for exemption under section 7(C) for individuals indemnified but did not exempt the corporation.
AT&T stance is that the word personal should include the meaning of person, which includes corporations.” The premises of their argument is that personal is supported by the common usage of the word person.” On the other hand, the FCC disagreed arguing that adjectives sometimes have corresponding meanings of their own. “AT&T appeal the decision with Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and that court decide in their favor. Stating that Congress accepts the word “person” to include corporations as well as individuals,” Later, “the Supreme Court urged the Justices to reject AT&T’s claim.”

Reference
Florida Criminal Defense. (march, 2011). Retrieved from http://www.muscalaw.com/Criminal-Lawyer