Circuit Court Strikes Down FCC's Net Neutrality Rules

This used to be a thing we talked about. Net Neutrality -- rules compelling broadband providers to treat all Internet traffic the same regardless of source --has to go back to the drawing board.

From the decision (PDF):

Even though the Commission has general authority to regulate in this arena, it may not impose requirements that contravene express statutory mandates. Given that the Commission has chosen to classify broadband providers in a manner that exempts them from treatment as common carriers, the Communications Act expressly prohibits the Commission from nonetheless regulating them as such. Because the Commission has failed to establish that the anti-discrimination and anti-blocking rules do not impose per se common carrier obligations, we vacate those portions of the Open Internet Order.

The short version explaining this decision is that the FCC exceeded its statutory mandate in issuing net neutrality rules. It did so, by the way, over the dissents of two commission members.

If you're looking to catch up on the issue of Net Neutrality in general (like I did when I heard this decision had been issued), Drew had a good post on it a few years ago.

posted by Gabriel Malor at 12:02 PM

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