Written by: Haim Ravia, Dotan Hammer
A U.S. Federal Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has struck down the Net Neutrality rules that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) re-established approximately nine months earlier.
Net Neutrality rules are intended to ensure that internet access providers treat all internet traffic equally, without restrictions or interference. These rules prohibit practices such as limiting bandwidth for sites that use large amounts of data, like Netflix.
The court rejected the FCC’s contention that internet access providers were “dumb pipes” and should, thus, be regulated under the same legal authorities used by the FCC to regulate traditional utilities like water, electricity, or telephone lines. By rejecting the FCC’s arguments, the court also struck down the applicability of the net neutrality rules. It is now up to Congress to determine whether to mandate net neutrality through federal law.
The rules have a history of overturning under different administrations, with Democrats supporting them and Republicans opposing them. The original Net Neutrality rules were established by the FCC in 2015 under the Obama administration, subsequently repealed by the Trump administration, and reinstated by the Biden administration. The new Trump administration is unlikely to make reinstating the rules a priority.
Click here to read the court’s decision in Ohio Telecom Association, et al. v. Federal Communications Commission.
