Broadband providers hit back at FCC over neutrality

Broadband providers are swinging back against the Federal Communications Commission in a legal brawl over the industry’s push to delay parts of the FCC’s net neutrality regulations.

A coalition of industry groups on Thursday told a court considering its request for a stay of portions of the sweeping order that the commission had not made a persuasive argument against the action in a filing last week.

The broadband trade groups and companies said the FCC relied “entirely on hypothetical concerns about conduct … that the Order expressly declined to find contrary to the public interest” in its response to the initial complaint, filed with the court last Friday.

{mosads}The various parties continued their assault on the order and reiterated their arguments about an order they call dangerous.

“Here, however, the FCC has endeavored to impose a massive regulatory sea change — enforceable through class actions and multi-million-dollar enforcement forfeitures — with no intelligible roadmap for regulated parties to follow,” they said.

The filing also questioned the FCC’s argument against a stay of new privacy rules that will take effect on June 12 along with the rest of the net neutrality order. Last week, the FCC released an advisory on how the rules will be enforced, but the providers said it was too vague.

“The FCC notably declines to say, however, whether any party’s current practices are protected from liability under that document. That is because the document provides no real guidance,” their filing said.

Like the FCC, the organizations and companies asked the court to expedite its consideration of the stay request.

The commission declined to comment on the brief. It filed its response brief in the case last Friday.

It’s the latest development in the court battle over the rules, which will classify broadband Internet service as a utility and, the FCC says, ensure that all content online is treated the same by Internet providers.