Court Dismisses Global Crossing Challenge to FCC USF Contribution Order
A U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit panel on Friday dismissed Global Crossing's legal challenge to a 2012 FCC order under which the company was to pay an additional $4.34 million into the USF contribution system. The panel…
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issued a dismissal judgment rather than an opinion because it found it had no jurisdiction over Global Crossing's petition for review. The panel said it could review only final FCC orders, and this one was an interlocutory order remanding an audit to the fund's administrator. The administrator lowered Global Crossing's payment obligation from an original $5.6 million under the audit to $4.34 million and "could have imposed zero contribution liability on Global Crossing," the panel said. "Such an outcome would clearly obviate the need for judicial review. Indeed in that event petitioner would lack standing to challenge the order," the panel found.