Law360 Reports On Filing In Legal Challenge to FCC’s Wi-Fi Blocking Enforcement Action

December 4, 2015

Bennett Ross, chair of Wiley Rein’s Telephony & Information Technology practice, and Mark B. Sweet, co-chair of Communications Enforcement & Compliance practice, authored a filing with the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) that was quoted extensively in a Law360 article, which challenges a proposed $718,000 fine against M.C. Dean Inc. for allegedly blocking personal mobile Wi-Fi hot spots at the Baltimore Convention Center (BCC).

“These theories are akin to a second-rate B-movie Dracula that collapses when exposed to the realities of daylight,” Mr. Ross and Mr. Sweet wrote in the filing. “The [notice of apparent liability (NAL)] should be dispatched with the regulatory equivalent of a wooden stake through the heart: a summary cancelation or withdrawal of the NAL.”

The filing contends ed that M.C. Dean used deauthentication to provide secure and reliable Wi-Fi service and did not violate applicable law in the process.

“[M.C. Dean] never used deauthentication in an effort to force anyone to buy Wi-Fi from MCD,” the company said in the filing. “Importantly, [M.C. Dean] does not even sell Wi-Fi services to individual visitors who are attending events at the BCC.”

M.C. Dean is represented by Mr. Ross and Mr. Sweet.

To read the full article, please click here.