The Patriot Post® · ISPs Challenge Net Neutrality

Once the FCC has handed down net neutrality rules, it was only a matter of time before Internet Service Providers and/or other entities filed suit. That time has come. Reason’s Peter Suderman reports, “A consortium of major Internet service providers, through the USTelecom Association, which includes AT&T and Verizon, formally submitted a legal complaint in the District of Columbia yesterday. The complaint states that the FCC’s recent order, which reclassifies broadband Internet service as a Title II telecommunications service, making it akin to a utility, is ‘arbitrary, capricious, and an abuse of discretion…’ and that it ‘violates federal law, including, but not limited to, the Consitution, the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, and FCC regulations promulgated thereunder.’” We generally believe net neutrality is a mixed bag: It’s not going to end the Internet as we know it, but neither is it going to usher in a golden age of free market competition. It’s not surprising, however, that the next few years will see quite a bit of litigation to settle the matter.