A U.S. Court of Appeals on Friday upheld California’s net neutrality law, rejecting an industry-funded challenge that sought to prevent the state from implementing protections enacted in the wake of the Trump administration’s gutting of federal open internet rules.
Media reform advocacy group Free Press—which spent the past two years working with Access Now, Mozilla, New America’s Open Technology Institute, and Public Knowledge to file amicus briefs at district and appellate courts in defense of California’s legislation – explained Friday that “lawyers representing ISPs had made meritless claims that the Trump FCC’s decision preempted state laws in this field, preventing states from stepping in to protect internet users exposed by the 2017 federal repeal.”
“The California net neutrality law is now clearly enforceable, and bars telecom companies from blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization, abusing their gatekeeper power in interconnection, or engaging in ‘zero rating’ scams,” the group added. “The court’s decision also clearly paves the way for other states to impose their own net neutrality protections.”
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FreePress
For Immediate Release
Friday January 28, 2022
Press Release
U.S. Court of Appeals Denies ISPs’ Attempt to Block California’s Landmark Net Neutrality Law
SAN FRANCISCO — On Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed a California federal district court’s order denying a phone-and-cable-industry effort to prohibit enforcement of the state’s landmark Net Neutrality law.
The California Internet Consumer Protection and Net Neutrality Act passed the Sacramento legislature and was signed into law by then-Gov. Jerry Brown in 2018. Industry groups representing companies like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon sought to prevent California from implementing the law, which the state put in place to fill the void left by the Trump FCC’s 2017 repeal of federal open-internet rules.
The district court concluded that California was within its rights to step into the vacuum created by the Trump FCC ruling and to pass a law that prevents internet service providers from blocking or discriminating against websites, apps and content chosen by internet users in California. In 2020 and 2021, Free Press joined Access Now, Mozilla, New America’s Open Technology Institute and Public Knowledge to file amicus briefs at the district-court and appellate-court levels in defense of California’s legislation.
Lawyers representing ISPs had made meritless claims that the Trump FCC’s decision preempted state laws in this field, preventing states from stepping in to protect internet users exposed by the 2017 federal repeal. The Trump FCC repeal also ditched the agency’s Title II authority to treat broadband as an essential telecommunications service, jeopardizing its ability to make broadband more affordable, ubiquitous and competitive.
Free Press Vice President of Policy and General Counsel Matt Wood said:
