Lost Cause

We reported the ongoing efforts by the FCC to have analog sets properly labeled as part of the DTV transition. Best Buy and few others having been hit by some pretty hefty fines. Well now the other shoe has fallen. Best Buy is using the ‘no controlling authority” defense as the basis of getting out of the fines. That’s been tried before with no wins.

As Ars has reported, in mid-April the Commission proposed almost $4 million in fines to seven major retailers for “willfully and repeatedly” selling analog-only TV sets without labels that warn consumers that the devices may not work after February 17, 2009—the last day of analog broadcasting. The fined stores included the Sears-Roebuck/K-Mart group, dinged to the tune of $1.096 million; Wal-Mart, hit with a $992,000 forfeit; and CompUSA, which took the lowest penalty of $168,000.

Best Buy received a proposed fine of $280,000. FCC Enforcement Bureau agents say that they checked numerous Best Buy stores and found analog only TVs on sale without warning labels. The agency told Best Buy about the sets, then “after affording Best Buy a reasonable opportunity to respond to the first Citation,” FCC staff surveyed the stores again, only to find more unlabeled analog TVs.

So the DTV transition marches on….

Linky.