Many moons ago, I was handed my first Enforcement Action (an FCC NAL) to defend.  It was the first of many, but not the last. On that first one, I tried finding materials on these types of actions to see current trends in the selection and investigation of violations to be proactive and prepare defenses.  And… guess what – Zippo! Well, it wasn’t the Commish’s fault.  Public Notices of these types of things were just slowly coming online at the time. The Internet was still growing.

However, this drives home a point. Sometimes a Digital Jurist just needs to see a context where legal environment sits and their case fits in to make decisions. Important stuff like how to approach formal response, negotiations, Consent Decrees, or Appeals to the Federal District Courts, or eventually the U.S Supreme Court.

There is also a marked difference between actions and fines against online and data businesses and communications providers – the FCC or the FTC. The FCC having jurisdiction over regulated comm providers, and the FTC everybody else.  So, who is doing the Whacking is important too, or if they are working in tandem, Likewise, there are state attorney general actions and private class actions in the federal and state civil courts that are kicked-up pushing the agencies to step-in. That’s a lot of information to collect and review. 

I decided to pick a few examples from the public record every so often, review them, and blog a heads-up to other industry players and their attorneys about it. By evaluating “Who Got Whacked And Why” legal eagles can better insight and understanding as to where the Enforcing Agency is drawing its interpretive “line” on rule and statute germane to the alleged violations. It can also highlight what’s happening with class action plaintiffs and the courts.  The blog posts will look at such things and provide a first tier of review of facts, law, and allegations to be a guidepost to the legal practitioner.  Basically, it’s a snapshot, not something exhaustive. That exhaustive part is your job counsel.  However, I hope it helps in compliance planning and defense, as both side hone-in on getting it right,

The posts that will follow will have the following format for quick review and reference:

• Agency or Party Type (such as Class Action)

• Release Date by Agency or Date of filing Federal Complaint.

• Industry Concerned/Impacted

• Reference Links (to go chase it down)

• Enforcement Issues, fines or damages:

• Matter/Case Summary of facts

• My preliminary review and comment from the record

Not every release from the FCC, FTC, or the courts will be highlighted on Who Got Whacked and Why posts.  I’m honestly eyeballing things that seem novel or seem to be forming A trend based on the focus of the enforcement action or the litigation.  The focus will be cyberlaw, digital communications, data privacy, and related digital topics. Likewise, if there is something really interesting happening in the Federal, Florida or fellow state court in another jurisdiction, it may be picked up to highlight and give a heads up to practitioners.

The post will be monthly just to give you an idea of what has happened lately, in case you already didn’t know.  It stands to be an interesting 2024- so let’s see what happens.