Legal Comments of TechFreedom & ICLE, In the Matter of Protecting and Promoting the Open Internet, FCC

Summary

“In its proposed rules, the FCC is essentially proposing to do what can only properly be done by Congress: invent a new legal regime for broadband. Each of the options the FCC
proposes to justify this — common carrier reclassification, and Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act — is deeply problematic. If the FCC believes regulation is necessary, it should better develop its case through more careful economic analysis, and then make that case to Congress in a request for new legislation. In the meantime, the FCC could play a valuable role in helping to convene a multistakeholder process to produce a code of conduct that would be enforceable—if not by the FCC, then by the Federal Trade Commission—above and beyond enforcement of existing antitrust and consumer protection laws.”