A challenge to the sweeping "net neutrality" rules issued by the FCC in 2015 has been rejected by the Washington, DC US Circuit Court of Appeals. The court, which had previously rejected some of the FCC's earlier net neutrality proposals in
a 2-1 ruling that forces AT&T and a national ISP industry group, which brought the challenge, to obey federal regulations that prevent the extortionate practice of blocking or slowing some internet traffic and prioritizing those that agree to pay the providers a fee.
The ruling also settles -- barring a successful appeal to the Supreme Court, which seems unlikely -- the question of whether the internet qualifies as a "public utility" that merits regulation and close scrutiny to prevent it from being widely available or exorbitantly expensive,
reports the
Washington Post. The FCC rules, on top of ensuring that net neutrality remains the default, also mandated privacy and data-security requirements, and other regulation designed to protect users from predatory practices that bigger ISPs were in favor of, to reduce competition and increase revenues.
"Given the tremendous impact third-party internet content has had on our society, it would be hard to deny its dominance in the broadband experience," the judges said in the majority ruling. "Over the past two decades, this content has transformed nearly every aspect of our lives, from profound actions like choosing a leader, building a career, and falling in love to more quotidian ones like hailing a cab and watching a movie."
The minority justice, Stephen Williams, agreed that the FCC had the legal authority to regulate providers, but hadn't proven that it needed to apply public-utility levels of scrutiny to the industry. AT&T and the National Cable and Telecommunication Association had argued that because they also provide other services, such as email, that they should be lightly regulated as "information services" rather than closely regulation as "telecommunications providers," despite a telecommunications company being the lead named plaintiff.
FCC chair Tom Wheeler said in reaction to the ruling that it was "a victory for consumers and innovators who deserve unfettered access to the entire web, and it ensures [that] the internet remains a platform for unparalleled innovation, free expression and economic growth." Internet advocacy group Public Knowledge called the victory "a slam-dunk win .. for the open internet order, and for the FCC." AT&T said in a brief statement that it planned to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court, with the NCTA said it was "unlikely" to be the last challenge to the rules.
The FCC is also still in the process of deciding exactly how the regulations it successfully defended will be implemented. Some at the agency have expressed concern that the recent practice of "zero rating" -- a technique widely used by T-Mobile, for example, to exempt certain media services and sites from counting against data limitations -- may be a back-door approach to "pay to play" and giving larger and more popular services an unfair competitive advantage over startups and smaller companies. The full court opinion is available
here.
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