The FCC will require more time to review in excess of 31,000 documents from TWC. “It has recently come to our attention that Time Warner Cable has discovered a significant number of responsive documents that were not timely produced to the FCC,” said the regulatory body.
The Commission has imposed an informal 180-day countdown for the review, which will now be paused until January 12 2015.
The FCC learned this month that TWC had withheld “… in excess of 7,000 responsive documents [which] had been withheld based on an inappropriate claim of attorney-client privilege”. The agency later found out that more than 31,000 requested documents were missing, due to a vendor error.
"Today's delay is a procedural issue, not a substantive one," TWC spokesman Bobby Amirshahi said in a statement. "We already have provided the FCC more than five million pages of documents and we will continue to provide the FCC everything that they need to review this transaction."
The delay represents another hurdle in Comcast’s bid to acquire TWC. In July, Dish Network called on the FCC to block the deal on competition grounds.
The companies remain on track for the deal to be completed early in 2015.
