In less than two weeks after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) introduced its new rules for net neutrality, American broadband providing companies have filed lawsuits against the regulatory body in an attempt to overturn the recently passed regulations for monitoring Internet traffic.
Industry trade group USTelecom Association and Internet service provider Alamo Broadband challenged the new set of net neutrality rules in different lawsuits against FCC.
USTelecom Association, the trade group representing some of the country’s largest Internet service providers, on Monday filed a lawsuit in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, claiming that the actions of the federal regulatory body is a violation of federal commandment and also “arbitrary, capricious and an abuse of discretion.”
Walter McCormick, president of USTelecom, in a statement said, “We do not believe the Federal Communications Commission’s move to utility-style regulation invoking Title II authority is legally sustainable.”
Making similar arguments, Texas-based Alamo on Monday challenged the FCC’s action in a federal appeals court in New Orleans.
Both the cases are the first legal moves taken by the Internet-based companies against the new rules for net neutrality, which were approved by a 3-2 vote in February after a long term debate.
The newly passed rules forbid broadband service providers from slowing down or blocking Internet traffic on wired and wireless networks. The rules also ban ISPs from providing paid priority services that could enable them to charge content firms, like Netflix, fees to access “Internet fast lanes” to reach consumers more instantly when networks are congested.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson of FCC termed the lawsuits “premature and subject to dismissal”.