Fitbit will shift production to "outside China" starting in January for “effectively all of its trackers and smartwatches” to escape exposure to the tariffs on Chinese goods, said the company Wednesday. "Those products will no longer be of Chinese origin and therefore not subject to Section 301 tariffs,” said Fitbit, without disclosing where it's moving its sourcing. Smartwatches and fitness trackers, comprising the entire Fitbit product line, were hit with 15 percent List 4A tariffs Sept. 1 as part of the broad category of 8517.62.00.90 goods that also includes smart speakers and Bluetooth headphones (see 1908130028). The company began exploring potential alternatives to China last year, said Chief Financial Officer Ron Kisling. It altered its supply chain and manufacturing operations with “additional changes underway,” the company said. Fitbit said it will give additional details, including the financial implications, on its Q3 call within the month. Fitbit devices are assembled in China from parts and components sourced from Taiwan and Singapore, but shifting final assembly outside China “has been a very big challenge for us,” testified Executive Vice President-General Counsel Andy Missan at a Section 301 hearing in June. The devices require “high-precision assembly and high volume,” he said then. "We have not been able to find those characteristics in other locations,” despite looking throughout Southeast Asia, he said.
Country of origin cases
The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, NTCA and 22 other groups urged leaders of the House and Senate Appropriations committees to ensure $605 million in House-passed funding for the Rural Utilities Service's ReConnect rural broadband funding program remains in the FY 2020 Agriculture Department funding bill. The House approved the increase in June by 408-22 (see 1906210001). Congress originally allocated $600 million for what became ReConnect in the FY 2018 omnibus spending law but decreased the funding to $550 million for FY 2019 (see 1902150055). “USDA has signaled that much of the money previously allocated” for ReConnect “will be committed in the coming weeks to the first tranche of awardees,” NRECA and the others wrote to Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala.; ranking member Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.; House Appropriations Chairwoman Nita Lowey, D-N.Y.; and ranking member Kay Granger, R-Texas, in a letter released Tuesday. “We are concerned that a lapse in appropriations in [FY 2020] will deny funds for those communities in need of broadband and interested in pursuing ReConnect funding.” The groups noted USDA received initial applications seeking more than $635 million in program loans and grants, which likely “represents a mere fraction of the total investment needed going forward to close the digital divide.” Senate Appropriations advanced its FY 2020 Agriculture bill in September with no additional ReConnect funding, but the bill's report includes language directing the department to review ReConnect. Reps. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., who sought the ReConnect funding hike, and Rodney Davis, R-Ill., are also seeking their colleagues' support for keeping the increase in the final appropriations bill. The measure should “contain robust funding for rural broadband programs such as ReConnect and the 2018 Farm Bill broadband loan and grant program,” they wrote. “This funding is critical to addressing the 'digital divide.'”
The deadline for low-power TV stations and TV translators to file for repacking reimbursement was extended to Nov. 14, said an FCC Media Bureau public notice on docket 16-306 Tuesday. The LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition and National Translator Association requested the extension, the PN said. The original deadline was Oct. 15, and that remains for FM stations seeking repacking reimbursement, the PN said. “The initial 60-day deadline was proving to be too quick a process, with many consulting engineers, legal counsel, and equipment vendors not having enough time to assist all that needed help,“ emailed LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition Director Mike Gravino. More time should lead to broader participation, he said.
The newly revamped Galaxy Fold touts obvious “fixes” of the problems that forced Samsung to scrap the foldable smartphone days before its April 26 debut (see 1904220028), said an updated iFixit teardown "Take Two" report Monday. The right-to-repair company’s original teardown analysis declared the Fold “fragile with a capital ‘F’” (see 1904240027). During the five months in which the Fold disappeared back into the lab, Samsung “closed some gaps, reinforced the folding display, and hid the edges of that screen protection layer that everyone found so catastrophically tempting to peel off,” said iFixit. The Fold “represents a new form factor for smartphones and is undeniably a cool piece of tech,” but questionable flaws remain, it said. “While Samsung added ingress protection in some areas, others -- like the spine -- seem sure to trap (and keep) debris.” Of the meaningful tweaks Samsung made, “we can’t help but wonder why these seemingly obvious durability safeguards weren’t part of the Fold’s design in the first place,” said iFixit. Samsung didn’t comment.
The FTC doesn’t intend to weaken Obama-era changes to the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, Commissioner Christine Wilson said Monday at the agency’s COPPA workshop. Republican colleague Noah Phillips defended the innovation and economic growth spurred by the rule. The agency’s COPPA review (see 1910040026) isn’t an attempt to roll back 2013 changes to the children’s online privacy rule, and the FTC knows protecting innovation can’t be done at the expense of children, Wilson said. The agency wants to make sure COPPA keeps pace with online technology, she said, citing modern data collection methods and ways children interact with media.
A declaratory ruling prohibiting charging higher 911 fees for VoIP subscribers than for legacy phone services circulated on the 8th floor Wednesday. It would resolve jurisdiction issues over such fees, says the FCC draft Friday on docket 19-44. Also released for the Oct. 25 meeting were a draft cable TV effective competition order for parts of Massachusetts and Hawaii, the 800 MHz rebanding draft order, a draft NPRM for removing broadcast antenna siting rules that don’t appear to have ever been successfully used, a draft order on measuring broadband performance of Connect America Fund recipients and a draft order regarding telecom tariffs (see 1910030061).
Erik Hower and Carol Wilner returning to AT&T as vice presidents, respectively for global public affairs and for constituency relations ... Atheria Law launches insurance-focused firm with founding partners including Joan D’Ambrosio and Julie Choi Hawkinson, both technology, media, intellectual property; Jamison Narbaitz, cyber and privacy, technology errors and omissions, media liability and data breach; and Christina Terplan, technology, IP and privacy law, all from Clyde ... CPB names Kimberly Howell, from Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, inspector general, replacing Mary Mitchelson, who retired in April.
Online platforms can be ordered to monitor for future sightings of content previously determined to be illegal, the European Court of Justice ruled Thursday in a case that could upend Europe's intermediary liability e-commerce directive. The high court said in Eva Glawischnig-Piesczek v. Facebook that EU members could order hosting companies to remove or block access to information "identical" or "equivalent" to content already declared illegal, including worldwide. Along with platform liability, ECJ raises issues of conflicts of law, free speech and mandatory content monitoring, representatives from the tech industry, digital rights activists, telecom sector and academia told us.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is unlikely to rush to address a remand on public safety, an issue remanded for further work by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Tuesday that largely upheld the FCC 2017 order overturning 2015 net neutrality rules (see 1910010018). Others said Wednesday because the issues involve public safety, the agency may feel compelled to respond (see 1910020028).
FCC allies in Tuesday's federal court decision on the Communications Act Title II rollback order (see 1910010018) consider appeal unlikely. Petitioner allies are less sure. California and Vermont’s litigated net neutrality laws remain on hold, those states’ attorneys generals confirmed Wednesday.