The Federal Communications Commission's $25 million limit on helping small businesses and minority entrepreneurs competing with big corporations bid for licenses for radio and broadband space is legal, a federal appeals court has ruled.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit's ruling Thursday stifles a challenge made by a small telecom investment firm in Connecticut opposing the FCC's cap on bidding credits given to “designated entities,” or DEs, in auctions for space on the electromagnetic spectrum.

The investment firm, Council Tree Investors, claimed the FCC's limit was set arbitrarily and that the commission had no evidence that businesses abused bidding credits in the licensing process.