Net Neutrality and Broken Records
Idon’t mean to sound like a broken record, but why is the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) playing a broken record?
I’ve been writing a fair bit about Federal Trade Commission (FTC) rulemaking initiatives. On the theory that you deserve a nominal break from all of that, this post is mostly about the FCC.
On Sept. 28, the FCC published a “fact sheet” and a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) on “Safeguarding and Securing the Open Internet.” Just shy of a month later, on Oct. 25, the FCC published another “fact sheet” and NPRM—this one, on “Preventing Digital Discrimination.”
My International Center for Law & Economics (ICLE) colleague Eric Fruits has written about the proposals here, here, here, here, here, and, with our colleague Ben Sperry, here. ICLE’s Kristian Stout is here. Eric explains how, in relatively straightforward fashion, the anti-discrimination requirements could lead to price regulation, notwithstanding the FCC’s own observation that “there is little to no evidence of intentional digital discrimination of access.”