Court Rejects Plea to Block FCC’s Net-Neutrality Rules

A fed­er­al court re­jec­ted a bid by cable and tele­com com­pan­ies to block net-neut­ral­ity rules Thursday, pav­ing the way for the ex­pans­ive new In­ter­net reg­u­la­tions to take ef­fect Fri­day.

The rul­ing by the U.S. Court of Ap­peals for the Dis­trict of Columbia Cir­cuit is a re­lief to the Fed­er­al Com­mu­nic­a­tions Com­mis­sion, which en­acted the rules in Feb­ru­ary. But the leg­al battle over net neut­ral­ity is far from over.

As­so­ci­ations for the cable pro­viders, tele­com com­pan­ies, and cel­lu­lar car­ri­ers plan to con­tin­ue their fight to re­peal the rules after they take ef­fect. The groups warn the reg­u­la­tions will stifle in­vest­ment in broad­band net­works, ul­ti­mately lead­ing to worse In­ter­net ser­vice for every­one.

In a brief state­ment, the three judge pan­el of the D.C. Cir­cuit said that the In­ter­net pro­viders had “not sat­is­fied the strin­gent re­quire­ments” needed to sus­pend the rules while their law­suit is pending.

The court did grant the re­quest from both the com­pan­ies and the FCC to fast-track the case to get a fi­nal rul­ing as soon as pos­sible.

“This is a huge vic­tory for In­ter­net con­sumers and in­nov­at­ors!” FCC Chair­man Tom Wheel­er said in a state­ment. “Start­ing Fri­day, there will be a ref­er­ee on the field to keep the In­ter­net fast, fair and open.”

The FCC’s net-neut­ral­ity rules bar In­ter­net pro­viders from block­ing web­sites, se­lect­ively slow­ing down traffic, or cre­at­ing “fast lanes” for sites that pay. Sup­port­ers of the rules ar­gue that they are ne­ces­sary to keep In­ter­net pro­viders from act­ing as gate­keep­ers and con­trolling what people can ac­cess on­line. Pres­id­ent Obama, who prom­ised to sup­port net neut­ral­ity in his 2008 cam­paign, urged the FCC last Novem­ber to en­act the “strongest pos­sible” rules. 

The FCC first en­acted net-neut­ral­ity rules in 2010, but the D.C. Cir­cuit struck them down in early 2014. In at­tempt to bol­ster the chances of the new rules in court, the FCC dra­mat­ic­ally ex­pan­ded its own reg­u­lat­ory au­thor­ity. The new rules clas­si­fy In­ter­net ser­vice un­der the same reg­u­lat­ory re­gime as tele­phones.

The in­dustry groups ar­gue that Con­gress nev­er in­ten­ded to sub­ject In­ter­net ser­vice to such a bur­den­some reg­u­lat­ory clas­si­fic­a­tion. The com­mis­sion’s de­cision also vi­ol­ates rules for agency pro­ced­ures, they claim.

The In­ter­net pro­viders say they only op­pose clas­si­fy­ing In­ter­net ser­vice as a util­ity, and not the prin­ciple of net neut­ral­ity it­self. But the FCC ar­gues that over­turn­ing the reg­u­lat­ory clas­si­fic­a­tion would leave the rules un­en­force­able. 

The in­dustry groups said the D.C. Cir­cuit’s rul­ing was dis­ap­point­ing, but not un­ex­pec­ted. Con­vin­cing a court to block rules be­fore they even take ef­fect is usu­ally a leg­al long shot. But the groups praised the court for agree­ing to ex­ped­ite their law­suit.

“We are now ready to get to the mer­its of the case and are con­fid­ent as ever that we will pre­vail,” the Na­tion­al Cable and Tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions As­so­ci­ation said in a state­ment.