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Administrative Law Keyed to Cass
MCI Telecommunications Corp. v. AT&T Co.
Citation:
512 U.S. 218 (1994)Facts
The Communications Act of 1934 required all common carriers to file tariffs with the FCC showing their rates and charges. In response to increased competition in the long-distance telecommunications market during the 1970s and 1980s, the FCC progressively relaxed tariff filing requirements for nondominant carriers through a series of orders, culminating in a permissive detariffing policy that made filing optional for all carriers except AT&T, the sole dominant carrier. The FCC reasoned that nondominant carriers lacked market power to charge unreasonable or discriminatory rates, making mandatory filing unnecessary and counterproductive. AT&T filed a complaint alleging that MCI’s collection of unfiled rates violated the Act’s mandatory filing provisions. The FCC dismissed the complaint, but the D.C. Circuit reversed, holding that permissive detariffing exceeded the Commission’s modification authority.
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