§ 1.1208   Restricted proceedings.

   Unless  otherwise  provided by the Commission or its staff pursuant to
   § 1.1200(a) ex parte presentations (other than ex parte presentations exempt
   under  § 1.1204(a)) to or from Commission decision-making personnel are
   prohibited  in  all  proceedings not listed as exempt in § 1.1204(b) or
   permit-but-disclose in § 1.1206(a) until the proceeding is no longer subject
   to administrative reconsideration or review or judicial review. Proceedings
   in  which  ex  parte  presentations  are  prohibited,  referred  to as
   “restricted” proceedings, include, but are not limited to, all proceedings
   that have been designated for hearing, proceedings involving amendments to
   the broadcast table of allotments, applications for authority under Title
   III of the Communications Act, and all waiver proceedings (except for those
   directly associated with tariff filings). A party making a written or oral
   presentation in a restricted proceeding, on a non-ex parte basis, must file
   a copy of the presentation or, for an oral presentation, a summary of the
   presentation in the record of the proceeding using procedures consistent
   with those specified in § 1.1206.

   Note 1 to § 1.1208: In a restricted proceeding involving only one “party,” as
   defined  in  § 1.1202(d),  the party and the Commission may freely make
   presentations to each other because there is no other party to be served or
   with  a  right  to  have an opportunity to be present. See § 1.1202(b).
   Therefore,  to  determine  whether  presentations are permissible in a
   restricted proceeding without service or notice and an opportunity for other
   parties to be present the definition of a “party” should be consulted.
   Examples: After the filing of an uncontested application or waiver request,
   the applicant or other filer would be the sole party to the proceeding. The
   filer  would  have  no other party to serve with or give notice of any
   presentations to the Commission, and such presentations would therefore not
   be  “ex parte presentations” as defined by § 1.1202(b) and would not be
   prohibited. On the other hand, in the example given, because the filer is a
   party, a third person who wished to make a presentation to the Commission
   concerning the application or waiver request would have to serve or notice
   the filer. Further, once the proceeding involved additional “parties” as
   defined  by  § 1.1202(d) (e.g., an opponent of the filer who served the
   opposition on the filer), the filer and other parties would have to serve or
   notice all other parties.

   Note 2 to § 1.1208: Consistent with § 1.1200(a), the Commission or its staff
   may  determine that a restricted proceeding not designated for hearing
   involves primarily issues of broadly applicable policy rather than the
   rights  and  responsibilities of specific parties and specify that the
   proceeding will be conducted in accordance with the provisions of § 1.1206
   governing permit-but-disclose proceedings.

   [ 62 FR 15857 , Apr. 3, 1997, as amended at  64 FR 68948 , Dec. 9, 1999;  76 FR 24383 , May 2, 2011]

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Prohibition on Solicitation of Presentations

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