FCC Delays Review of Comcast-TWC Merger Over Undisclosed Documents
The FCC pressed pause on its review of the proposed Comcast-TWC merger after learning that thousands of documents it should have had access to were withheld.
The roughly 7,000 documents were not disclosed due to “an inappropriate claim of attorney client privilege,” according to the FCC. In addition, some 31,000 documents that were also responsive to the commission’s work were not disclosed as the result of a “vendor error.”
Those mistakes were enough for the FCC to call time out. The agency’s 180-day review period that it calls “informal” will now take a three-week hiatus, resuming on January 12.
Today also marks the end of the public comment period regarding the proposed merger. Comcast marked the occasion with a lengthy blog post extolling the deal’s virtues. A sample: “We’ve built a compelling record in favor of the transaction. […] We also have demonstrated the absence of serious competitive harms arising out of the transaction.”
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