Hollings said S. 2793 was not a protectionist measure, noting that there was no objection to Vodaphone's purchase of US cellular provider Airtouch Communications, nor was there any outcry when France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom moved to acquire a minority stake in Sprint. Current law requires the FCC to reject a merger in which a foreign government controls more than a 25 percent stake in a company seeking to acquire a US firm. The proposed legislation, however, would eliminate the public interest standard and hold the FCC to a strict observance of the 25 percent rule. Tauzin then turned his attention to FCC Chairman William Kennard, asking him to provide an indication of which way the commission would lean in reviewing the merger. Fisher said both Spain and Italy have recently been taken to court by the WTO, and predicted the US would suffer the same fate if it passed such restrictive legislation.
Further legislation is unnecessary and potentially counterproductive.