FCC Ramps Up Investigation of LED Billboard Manufacturers

In recent weeks, the FCC's Enforcement Bureau has begun a wideranging investigation of illegal sales of unlicensed LED billboards, signs and displays.   The FCC has sent out numerous Letters of Inquiry to manufacturers and resellers of LED products. The focus of the FCC's investigation is on the unintentional radio frequency (RF) emissions that large LED arrays create and the failure of manufacturers to test and certify such devices, as required by law.

FCC regulation of LED displays is relatively new. Part 15 of the FCC rules has long covered all products that unintentionally radiate RF emissions in the 9 KHz-3000 GHz range. See 47 C.F.R. Part 15, subpart B. However, LED displays were not explicitly identified as devices that emitted RF in that range and could interfere with licensed radio communications services. As LED technology became cheaper, brighter and more powerful during this decade, large scale outdoor LED displays (including video screens at stadiums, signs at churches and the "video walls" covering much of Times Square in New York) proliferated. By 2014, the FCC began receiving complaints of LED displays interfering with licensed services. As a result, its Office of Engineering and Technology investigated the issue. In 2015, the FCC issued a report and in 2016 it confirmed that LED displays were unintentional radiators that required authorization under the FCC rules before they could be marketed in the U.S. See https://www.fcc.gov/engineering-technology/laboratory-division/general/equipment-authorization.

The investigation was apparently started by a complaint from an industry competitor that identified a number of manufacturers and resellers selling products that were not compliant with the FCC regulations. 

Most of the companies that are potential targets are not directly regulated or licensed by the FCC. Therefore, under the Communications Act, the agency has to follow additional procedural steps - including giving the violators notice of their potentially illegal conduct - before it can actually begin a proceeding to hold them liable for failing to comply with the law. 

The FCC's investigation of compliance in the LED display industry is just beginning, and no one outside the agency knows the full scope or the ultimate goal. Many companies in the industry that have not received an LOI are waiting for the other shoe to drop. At the same time, there is uncertainty among those who are already under investigation about whether the FCC investigation is just an opportunistic follow-on to the competitor complaint or reflects a conscious decision to target and make an example of a rapidly growing industry that many believe has knowingly failed to meet its legal responsibilities. The answer lies many months, perhaps even years, down the road.