Sixth Circuit to Hear Challenges to FCC’s Net Neutrality Ruling

The Sixth Circuit will hear court challenges to a recent decision by the Federal Communications Commission to reinstate net neutrality rules and ensure everything on the internet is equally accessible, a federal panel said Thursday.

The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation randomly selected the Cincinnati-based US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit as the venue under which to consolidate cases filed across the country to challenge the FCC’s 3-2 decision from April, it said in an order. The regulations—which bar cable and phone providers such as Comcast Corp. and AT&T Inc. from blocking or slowing information flowing over the internet, or to sites that compete with them including Google and Netflix Inc.—go into effect on July 22.

The regulations also forbid telecommunications companies from giving preferential treatment through “fast lanes” which, for example, could allow a business partner’s website to load faster than others.

Service providers and Republicans both on and off the commission oppose the new rules, saying the broadband market is working well and that the new regulations invite government interference in internet operations.

Industry organizations late last week asked the FCC to act by Friday to ensure the regulations don’t go into effect by next month, as they want time to argue in court and for the judges to rule.

The case is In Re: Federal Communications Commission, In the Matter of Safeguarding and Securing the Open Internet, Declaratory Ruling, Order, Report and Order, and Order on Reconsideration, FCC 24-52, 89 Fed. Reg. 45404, Published on May 22, 2024, J.P.M.L., MCP No. 185, 6/6/24.