August 9, 2016

• House and Senate Committees Look at FCC Privacy Plan
• Canada Group Targets Food
• Advertising Day on the Hill Date Set

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House and Senate Committees Look at FCC Privacy Plan

On July 12, the House Energy and Commerce Committee and Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation each conducted hearings on the Federal Communications Commission’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on privacy issues. All five FCC Commissioners testified at the House hearing. The Senate hearing featured witnesses from the telecommunications and information technology industries and legal academics.

When questioned at the House hearing, FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai, who dissented from the Notice, warned that the FCC’s approach to broadband privacy would carve out unique regulations for Internet Service Providers and create a two-track regulatory regime alongside the Federal Trade Commission’s privacy framework.

Similarly, witnesses at the Senate hearing characterized the Notice as too narrow since the FCC only has jurisdiction over ISP’s and not the entire Internet ecosystem. Industry witnesses argued for a revised Notice that would reconcile the FCC’s approach with that of the FTC.

AAF and many of our allied associations have submitted comments with the FCC and letters to lawmakers expressing our concerns with the FCC proposal.

Canada Group Targets Food Advertising

The Canadian Stop Marketing to Kids Coalition is pushing the Canadian government to ban the advertising of all food and beverages to children under 18. The group was emboldened when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau instructed the Minster of Health to introduce “new restrictions on the commercial marketing of unhealthy food and beverages to children, similar to those now in place in Quebec.”

The Coalition wants to go farther by banning the advertising of all food and beverages. It takes inspiration from the Ottawa Principles which calls for such ban, and has a very wide definition of what constitutes advertising and commercial marketing.

Day on the Hill Date Set

The American Advertising Federation’s Advocacy & Action: AAF Advertising Day on the Hill will be on Thursday, March 30, 2017 in Washington, DC. This free conference will be a chance for advertising professionals from around the country to learn about the issues facing advertising from policy experts and lawmakers and then take to the halls of Congress to meet and educate their own Representatives and Senators.

More details will be released soon, but it is not too soon to start making plans to attend Advocacy & Action: AAF Advertising Day on the Hill.

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