Opinion ID: 4413296
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Application of Zauderer Test

Text: Under Zauderer, compelled disclosure of commercial speech complies with the First Amendment if the information 26 CTIA V. CITY OF BERKELEY in the disclosure is reasonably related to a substantial governmental interest and is purely factual and uncontroversial. The question before us is whether the speech compelled by the Berkeley ordinance satisfies this test. i. Reasonably Related to a Substantial Governmental Interest There is no question that protecting the health and safety of consumers is a substantial governmental interest. See, e.g., Posadas de Puerto Rico Assocs. v. Tourism Co. of Puerto Rico, 478 U.S. 328, 341 (1986) (“[H]ealth, safety, and welfare constitute[] a ‘substantial’ governmental interest”). The federal government and Berkeley have both sought to further that interest. By adopting SAR limits on exposure to RF radiation, the FCC has furthered the interest of protecting the health and safety of cell phone users in the United States. It has done so by adopting a highly protective policy, setting low SAR limits on RF radiation and compelling cell phone manufacturers to disclose information to cell phone users that will allow them to avoid exceeding those limits. By passing its ordinance, the City of Berkeley furthers that same interest. After finding that cell phone users are largely unaware of the FCC policy and of the information in their user manuals, the Berkeley City Council decided to compel retailers in Berkeley to provide, in summary form, the same information that the FCC already requires cell phone manufacturers to provide to those same consumers, and to direct those consumers to consult their user manuals for more detailed information. See Jensen Decl., Ex. A (survey) (reflecting that a majority of persons surveyed were not “aware that the government’s radiation tests to assure the safety of cell phones assume that a cell phone would not be carried against CTIA V. CITY OF BERKELEY 27 your body, but would instead be held at least 1 to 15 millimeters from your body”). CTIA argues strenuously that radio-frequency radiation from cell phones has not been proven dangerous to consumers. Limiting itself to research published when the record was made in this case, CTIA is correct in pointing out that there was nothing then before the district court showing that such radiation had been proven dangerous. But this is beside the point. The fact that RF radiation from cell phones had not been proven dangerous was well known to the FCC in 1996 when it adopted SAR limits to RF radiation; was well known in 2013 when it refused to exclude cell phones from its rule adopting SAR limits; and was well known in 2015 when it required cell phone manufacturers to tell consumers how to avoid exceeding SAR limits. After extensive consultation with federal agencies with expertise about the health effects of radio-frequency radiation, the FCC decided, despite the lack of proof of dangerousness, that the best policy was to adopt SAR limits with a large margin of safety. The FCC concluded that requiring cell phone manufacturers to inform consumers in their users manuals of SAR limits on RF radiation, and to tell them how to avoid excessive exposure, furthered the federal government’s interest in protecting their health and safety. The City of Berkeley concluded that consumers were largely unaware of the contents of their users manuals. Agreeing with the FCC that the information about SAR limits and methods of avoiding excessive exposure is important, Berkeley requires cell phone retailers to provide some of that same information to consumers and to direct them to their user manuals for further details. We are not in a position to disagree with the conclusions of FCC and Berkeley that this compelled 28 CTIA V. CITY OF BERKELEY disclosure is “reasonably related” to protection of the health and safety of consumers. ii. Purely Factual and Uncontroversial CTIA argues that Berkeley’s compelled disclosure is not “purely factual” within the meaning of Zauderer. We disagree. For the convenience of the reader, we again provide the full text of the compelled disclosure: The City of Berkeley requires that you be provided the following notice: To assure safety, the Federal Government requires that cell phones meet radio-frequency (RF) exposure guidelines. If you carry or use your phone in a pants or shirt pocket or tucked into a bra when the phone is ON and connected to a wireless network, you may exceed the federal guidelines for exposure to RF radiation. Refer to the instructions in your phone or user manual for information about how to use your phone safely. Berkeley Mun. Code § 9.96.030(A) (2015). CTIA V. CITY OF BERKELEY 29 The text of the compelled disclosure is literally true. We take it sentence by sentence: (1) “To assure safety, the Federal Government requires that cell phones meet radio-frequency (RF) exposure guidelines.” This statement is true. As recounted above, beginning in 1996 the federal government has set RF exposure guidelines with which cell phones must comply. (2) “If you carry or use your cell phone in a pants or shirt pocket or tucked into a bra when the phone is ON and connected to a wireless network, you may exceed the federal guidelines for exposure to RF radiation.” This statement is also true. The FCC has established SAR limits for RF radiation premised on maintaining a certain separation between a cell phone and the user’s body. Maintaining that separation protects consumers from exceeding the SAR limits. (3) “Refer to the instructions in your phone or user manual for information about how to use your phone safely.” This sentence is an instruction rather than a direct factual statement. However, it clearly implies a factual statement that “information about how to use your phone safely” in compliance with the FCC’s RF “exposure guidelines” “to assure safety,” may be found either in a cell phone or user manual. This implied statement, too, is true. We recognize, of course, that a statement may be literally true but nonetheless misleading and, in that sense, untrue. That is what CTIA argues here. CTIA argues that the compelled disclosure is inflammatory and misleading, and that it is therefore not “purely factual.” CTIA bases its argument solely on the text of the ordinance. 30 CTIA V. CITY OF BERKELEY CTIA argues that “[t]he Ordinance requires an inflammatory warning about unfounded safety risks”; that “[t]he Ordinance clearly and deliberately suggests that the federal RF energy testing guideline (the SAR limit) is the demarcation point of ‘safety’ for cell phones, such that ‘exposure’ to RF energy above that limit creates a safety hazard”; and that “[t]he Ordinance is misleading for the additional reason that it uses the inflammatory term ‘radiation,’ which is fraught with negative associations, in order to stoke consumer anxiety.” CTIA argues further that the phrase “RF radiation” is “fraught with negative associations,” that it is used in the compelled disclosure “in order to stoke consumer anxiety,” and that it is therefore not “purely factual.” We read the text differently. The first sentence tells consumers that cell phones are required to meet federal “RF exposure guidelines” in order “[t]o assure safety.” Far from inflammatory, this statement is largely reassuring. It assures consumers that the cell phones they are about to buy or lease meet federally imposed safety guidelines. The second sentence tells consumers what to do in order to avoid exceeding federal guidelines. This statement may not be reassuring, but it is hardly inflammatory. It provides in summary form information that the FCC has concluded that consumers should know in order to ensure their safety. Indeed, the FCC specifically requires cell phone manufacturers to provide this information to consumers. See “FCC Exposure Procedures” § 4.2.2(d) (“Specific information must be included in the operating manuals to enable users to select body-worn accessories that meet the minimum test separation distance requirements. . . . All supported body-worn accessory operating configurations CTIA V. CITY OF BERKELEY 31 must be clearly disclosed to users, through conspicuous instructions in the user guide and user manual, to ensure unsupported operations are avoided.”) (emphasis added). The third sentence tells consumers to consult their user manuals to obtain further information—that is, to obtain the very information the FCC requires cell phone manufacturers to provide in “conspicuous instructions” in user manuals. Further, the phrase “RF radiation,” used in the second sentence, is precisely the phrase the FCC has used, beginning in 1996, to refer to radio-frequency emissions from cell phones. See FCC Guidelines for Radio frequency Radiation at ¶ 1, supra at 6 (“radio-frequency (RF) radiation”). We do not fault Berkeley for using the term “RF radiation” to refer to cell phone emissions when it is not only the technically correct term, but also the term the FCC itself uses to refer to such emissions. Finally, we note that the Berkeley ordinance allows a cell phone retailer to add to the compelled disclosure. If a retailer is concerned, as CTIA contends it should be, that the term “RF radiation” is inflammatory and misleading, the retailer may add to the compelled disclosure any further statement it sees fit to add. See § 9.96.030(B) (“The paper on which the notice is printed may contain other information in the discretion of the Cell phone retailer[.]”). CTIA has put nothing in the record to indicate that any Berkeley retailer has felt it necessary, or even useful, to add explanatory information about the nature of RF radiation. Nor has CTIA presented any evidence in the district court showing how Berkeley consumers have understood the compelled disclosure, or evidence showing that sales of cell phones in 32 CTIA V. CITY OF BERKELEY Berkeley were, or are likely to be, depressed as a result of the compelled disclosure. In its supplemental briefing, CTIA presses its argument that Berkeley’s compelled disclosure is controversial. Specifically, CTIA argues that the disclosure is controversial because, in its view, it is misleading rather than factual. Because we have determined that the disclosure is factual and not misleading, we reject CTIA’s argument that the disclosure is controversial. Notably, CTIA does not argue that Berkeley’s compelled disclosure is controversial as a result of disagreement about whether radio-frequency radiation can be dangerous to cell phone users. We agree with CTIA’s tacit admission that the required disclosure is not controversial on that account. We recognize that there is a controversy concerning whether radio-frequency radiation from cell phones can be dangerous if the phones are kept too close to a user’s body over a sustained period. CTIA stoutly maintains that cell phones present no danger whatsoever; the FCC, on the other hand, has determined that cell phone users should be cautioned to store their cell phones at a certain distance from their bodies in order to avert any possible danger. Despite this disagreement, Berkeley’s required disclosure is uncontroversial within the meaning of NIFLA. It does not force cell phone retailers to take sides in a heated political controversy. The FCC’s required disclosure is no more and no less than a safety warning, and Berkeley’s required disclosure is a short-hand description of the warning the FCC already requires cell phone manufacturers to include in their user manuals. See NIFLA, 138 S. Ct. at 2376 (“[W]e do not question the legality of health and safety warnings long considered permissible[.]”). CTIA V. CITY OF BERKELEY 33 CTIA also argues that Zauderer does not apply because the disclosure “has nothing to do with the terms upon which cell phones are offered[.]” But NIFLA plainly contemplates applying Zauderer to “purely factual and uncontroversial disclosures about commercial products.” NIFLA, 138 S. Ct. at 2376 (emphasis added). Berkeley’s ordinance falls squarely within this category. It requires cell phone retailers to disclose information to prospective cell phone purchasers about what the FCC has concluded is appropriate use of the product they are about to buy.