US Ninth Circuit upholds California net neutrality law News
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US Ninth Circuit upholds California net neutrality law

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Friday ruled that California’s net neutrality law, SB 822, can remain in place, holding the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) 2017 decision to reverse federal internet protections cannot bar state action.

SB 822 is aimed at protecting the free and open internet by restoring the net neutrality protections afforded by the Open Internet Order, an Obama-era order that was repealed by the FCC under former then-president Donald Trump in 2017. The California law took effect last year and barred internet providers from blocking legal apps and websites banned prioritization of paid content by ISPs.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) challenged the law for “second-guess[ing] the Federal Government’s regulatory approach [to the internet],” but dropped the lawsuit in February 2021. The law continued to face challenges from telecom and broadband groups, such as USTelecom, Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA), and NCTA – The Internet & Television Association.

The decision on Friday upholds a district court’s ruling that the FCC does not have the authority to regulate broadband internet services because the FCC reclassified them to be information services rather than telecommunications services. Information services are more lightly regulated than telecommunication services, so the FCC “no longer has the authority to regulate in the same manner that it had when these services were classified as telecommunications services,” the opinion states.

“The agency … cannot preempt state action,” the court wrote in its ruling, adding that the power to control access could potentially “open the door for anticompetitive, discriminatory behaviour that could disadvantage important segments of society.”