WASHINGTON — The Federal Communications Commission can dump rules that keep internet providers from favoring some services over others, but it cannot bar states like California from enacting their own prohibitions, a federal court ruled on Tuesday.
While the ruling handed Trump-appointed regulators a partial victory, consumer advocates and other groups viewed the ruling as a victory for states and local governments seeking to put their own net neutrality rules in place.
The FCC’s 2015 net neutrality rules had barred internet providers such as AT&T, Comcast and Verizon from blocking, slowing down or charging internet companies to favor some sites or apps over others.
After the FCC repealed those rules in 2017, phone and cable companies were permitted to slow down or block services they don’t like or happen to be in competition with. Companies were also allowed to charge higher fees to rivals and make them pay for higher transmission speeds.
Such things have happened before. In 2007, for example, The Associated Press found that Comcast was blocking or throttling some file-sharing — and AT&T blocked Skype and other internet calling services on the iPhone until 2009.
The court now says that’s all permissible — as long as companies disclose it.
But in Tuesday’s decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the FCC failed to show legal authority to bar states from imposing any rules that the agency repealed or that are stricter than its own.
“This ruling empowers states to move forward in the absence of a federal approach to consumer protections,” said Lisa Hayes, co-CEO of the Center for Democracy & Technology.
States have already come up with their own net neutrality laws, including one in California that was put on hold until the issue worked its way through the courts. Congressional Democrats have attempted, unsuccessfully, to reverse the FCC’s repeal.
Then-California Gov. Jerry Brown signed the nation’s toughest net neutrality measure in September 2018 — legislation co-authored by Democratic state Sen. Scott Wiener of San Francisco — which required internet providers to maintain a level playing field online.
