California can bar internet providers from slowing service, federal court rules
The Trump administration cannot preempt a California law barring internet service providers from slowing service to certain websites, a federal court ruled Tuesday morning.
The decision in the Washington D.C. Circuit Court gives the state a boost in the legal battle to defend its 2018 net neutrality law, which was supported by consumer groups, but vigorously opposed by cable and telecommunication companies like AT&T and Verizon.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra agreed to delay enforcement of the law, which was supposed to take effect Jan. 1, 2019, pending the outcome of the D.C. case. Becerra and 21 other state attorneys general were party to the D.C. lawsuit, brought by Mozilla Corporation, which challenged the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) 2017 decision undoing so-called “net neutrality” rules established by the Obama administration in 2015.
Becerra issued a statement cheering the ruling and calling the FCC’s 2017 move “ill-conceived.” The attorney general will not, however, enforce the 2018 law until a separate case is decided in California, his office confirmed.
In the decision released Tuesday, the three-judge panel on the D.C. Circuit Court upheld the Trump administration’s decision to rescind the Obama-era net neutrality rule. But it ruled that the FCC does not have the power to block state laws that are at odds with the federal approach.
The Center for Democracy, which was a party to the lawsuit challenging the Trump FCC, said in a statement that the “ruling empowers states to move forward in the absence of a federal approach to consumer protections.”
California passed its net neutrality law in response to the Trump administration’s 2017 rule. Modeled off the 2015 Obama regulations, it aims to prevent internet companies from charging websites more for faster connections or prioritizing content from one website over another.
Net neutrality advocates argue that without it, internet companies may shut out smaller sites that can’t afford to pay higher rates and control what content people can see online.
The bill faced stiff opposition from telecommunications companies, which argued that by setting its own standards, California would create a patchwork of different regulations across the country. They lobbied hard against the bill, arguing it would drive up internet prices and remove incentives for companies to pursue faster internet technology.
The same day that then-Gov. Jerry Brown signed the law, the Trump administration sued California to block it.
That lawsuit, which was filed in California district court, was paused as the case against the FCC in played out in D.C. District Court. The case between the Trump administration and California is now poised to proceed, and Tuesday’s ruling strengthens California’s hand.
“The FCC simply has no power to order states not to protect consumers,” state Sen. Scott Wiener, the San Francisco Democrat who authored California’s net neutrality law, said in a statement. “We will continue to fight for a free and open internet, federally and at the state level.”
Several other states, including Oregon, Washington and Vermont, have also passed net neutrality laws. California’s, however, is the most far-reaching and has the potential to affect the industry given the state’s size and its role as the home of the tech industry.
This story was originally published October 1, 2019 at 11:31 AM with the headline "California can bar internet providers from slowing service, federal court rules."