Litigation between broadband companies and FCC likely to increase

Even though the FCC approved the merger between Comcast and NBCU, there will be continued negotiation and litigation surrounding the deal and the conditions imposed upon it by the FCC. According to a Post Tech blog by Cecilia Kang, last week, Consumers Union and the Consumer Federation of America asked the FCC to examine practices by Comcast to see if the group is violating the FCC’s new rules on net neutrality.

The FCC recently announced its first rule regarding Internet access and broadband service distribution. The net neutrality rule passed by the FCC was created to regulate broadband service providers and to ensure continued fair competition by prohibiting service providers from trying to edge out competitors by limiting access to the Internet.

Verizon Communications filed a lawsuit against the FCC last week in Washington, D.C., claiming that the FCC overstepped its authority by imposing the net neutrality rule on broadband service providers. According to Kang, supporters of the net neutrality rule will file lawsuits in other courts to try to get the Verizon lawsuit out of the D.C. federal appeals court because that court has previously ruled against the FCC in a similar matter. The same federal appeals court ruled in favor of Comcast and told the FCC that it had inappropriately sanctioned the company for blocking traffic by BitTorrent. Verizon will do what it can to keep its lawsuit in D.C.

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What next for net neutrality? Lawsuits galore (The Washington Post)