§ 63.14 Prohibition on agreeing to accept special concessions.

(a) Any carrier authorized to provide international communications service under this part shall be prohibited, except as provided in paragraph (c) of this section, from agreeing to accept special concessions directly or indirectly from any foreign carrier with respect to any U.S. international route where the foreign carrier possesses sufficient market power on the foreign end of the route to affect competition adversely in the U.S. market and from agreeing to accept special concessions in the future. Carriers may rely on the Commission's list of foreign carriers that do not qualify for the presumption that they lack market power in particular foreign points for purposes of determining which foreign carriers are the subject of the prohibitions contained in this section. The Commission's list of foreign carriers that do not qualify for the presumption that they lack market power is available from the Office of International Affairs' website at

https://www.fcc.gov/international-affairs

.

(b) A special concession is defined as an exclusive arrangement involving services, facilities, or functions on the foreign end of a U.S. international route that are necessary for the provision of basic telecommunications services where the arrangement is not offered to similarly situated U.S.-licensed carriers and involves:

(1) Operating agreements for the provision of basic services;

(2) Distribution arrangements or interconnection arrangements, including pricing, technical specifications, functional capabilities, or other quality and operational characteristics, such as provisioning and maintenance times; or

(3) Any information, prior to public disclosure, about a foreign carrier's basic network services that affects either the provision of basic or enhanced services or interconnection to the foreign country's domestic network by U.S. carriers or their U.S. customers.

ecifications, functional capabilities, or other quality and operational characteristics, such as provisioning and maintenance times; or

(3) Any information, prior to public disclosure, about a foreign carrier's basic network services that affects either the provision of basic or enhanced services or interconnection to the foreign country's domestic network by U.S. carriers or their U.S. customers.

(c) This section shall not apply to the rates, terms and conditions in an agreement between a U.S. carrier and a foreign carrier that govern the settlement of U.S. international traffic, including the method for allocating return traffic.

[62 FR 64754, Dec. 9, 1997, as amended at 64 FR 19063, Apr. 19, 1999; 64 FR 34741, June 29, 1999; 66 FR 16881, Mar. 28, 2001; 69 FR 23154, Apr. 28, 2004; 78 FR 11112, Feb. 15, 2013; 88 FR 21443, Apr. 10, 2023]