Net neutrality may have won the public’s affections, but the internet rules passed last month have drawn the ire of broadband companies and their lobbyists.
Four lawsuits were filed this week against the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to upend the net neutrality rules the agency passed earlier this year.
Representing top U.S. internet service providers, lobbying groups for the wireless industry, CTIA, and cable industry — USTelecom, National Cable and Telecommunications Association, and American Cable Association — accused the FCC abusing its power and is violating federal law and the Constitution.
All four complaints use roughly the same language, calling the net neutrality rules “arbitrary,” “capricious,” and beyond the FCC’s authority. USTelecom’s complaint stated:
After this Court vacated and remanded the FCC’s previous attempt at Internet regulation in Verizon v. FCC, the FCC initiated a rulemaking proceeding and ultimately issued the Order under review. That Order [or net neutrality rules] purports to reclassify broadband Internet access service as a Title II telecommunications service.
USTelecom seeks review of the Order on the grounds that it is arbitrary, capricious, and an abuse of discretion within the meaning of the Administrative Procedure Act; violates federal law, including, but not limited to, the Constitution, the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, and FCC regulations promulgated there under; conflicts with the notice-and-comment rule-making requirements; and is otherwise contrary to law.
USTelecom respectfully requests that this Court hold unlawful, vacate, enjoin, and set aside the Order, and that it provide such additional relief as may be appropriate.
In a blog post Tuesday, CTIA Chairman of the Board and CEO of Bluegrass Cellular Ron Smith couched the groups anti-net neutrality appeal as necessary to scale back the FCC’s attempt to stifle market competition:
Instead of letting consumers decide the success of new, innovative mobile services, government bureaucrats will now play that role. National, regional and rural wireless carriers will spend substantial time and resources trying to comply with the new vague and overbroad rules. CTIA’s member companies should be focused on meeting consumers’ growing demand for mobile data and creating new offerings.
The NCTA also wrote in a blog post that it’s appeal has “nothing to do with net neutrality” but with possibility of harsher regulations in the future that “could lead to the imposition of rate regulation, higher taxes and fees, increased cost of broadband deployment and the ability for government to set the terms and conditions of business relationships.”
Tuesday’s lawsuits come after the FCC published the 400-page net neutrality rules in the Federal Register Monday. While the agency voted to pass the rules in February and released them weeks later, they weren’t official and lacked the grounds needed to be legally contested.
Appeals filed this week aren’t the first to challenge the FCC’s new Open Internet rules. A small, Texas-based broadband provider and industry lobbying group USTelecom filed complaints in March, a move many considered premature because the rules had not been published.
The rules don’t go into effect until June 11.