The legal battle against the so-called “net neutrality” rules recently passed by the Federal Communications Communication has began. A telecom trade association formally filed suit against the FCC rules on Monday after the rules were published in the Federal Register.
The rules were voted on in February and uphold the principle of net neutrality – that online content be allowed to load at the same speed. They forbid paid fast lanes favoring some content and say broadband providers can’t slow Web traffic or block content.
They were published Monday in the government’s Federal Register and would go into effect on June 12 if a court doesn’t block them.
The United States Telecom Association, an industry group that represents companies including AT&T and Verizon, filed suit against the rules in the U.S. Court of Appeals for District of Columbia.
Previous net neutrality rules were struck down in federal court in 2011.
In the filing, the group called the FCC’s action “arbitrary, capricious, and an abuse of discretion … [and] violates federal law, including, but not limited to, the Constitution, the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, and FCC regulations promulgated thereunder; conflicts with the notice-and-comment rulemaking requirements … and is otherwise contrary to law.”
In a statement, USTelecom President Walter McCormick spelled out the group’s argument:
“In challenging the legality of the FCC’s Open Internet order, USTelecom believes the FCC used the wrong approach to implementing net neutrality standards, which our industry supports and incorporates into everyday business practices.
“Our appeal is not focused on challenging the objectives articulated by the President, but instead the unjustifiable shift backward to common carrier regulation after more than a decade of significantly expanded broadband access and services for consumers under light-touch regulation. Reclassifying broadband Internet access as a public utility reverses decades of established legal precedent at the FCC and upheld by the Supreme Court. History has shown that common carrier regulation slows innovation, chills investment, and leads to increased costs on consumers.
“The commission’s overreach is not only legally unsustainable, it is unwise given the enormous success of the commission’s Title I approach for consumers, businesses and Internet entrepreneurs, and it is unnecessary given the fact that broadband service providers are operating in conformance with the open Internet standards advanced by the President, agree with the standards, support their adoption in regulation by the FCC under Section 706, and support their enactment into law by the United States Congress.”
Last month, USTelecom originally announced its suit.
The FCC said the suit was premature since the rules had not yet been published in the register.
Companies have said they would likely challenge the FCC rules, which were adopted 3-2 by the three Democrat appointees led by Chair Tom Wheeler on the commission on Feb. 27. Later at the World Mobile Congress in Spain,. Wheller said the new rules were required because the Internet needed a “referee.”
Some Republican members of Congress also is challenging the FCC’s decision.
