{"id":15900,"date":"2013-09-09T21:40:28","date_gmt":"2013-09-09T21:40:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.publicknowledge.org\/uncategorized\/what-happened-at-the-net-neutrality-oral-argument\/"},"modified":"2025-01-09T21:25:22","modified_gmt":"2025-01-09T21:25:22","slug":"what-happened-at-the-net-neutrality-oral-argument","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/what-happened-at-the-net-neutrality-oral-argument\/","title":{"rendered":"What Happened At The Net Neutrality Oral Argument"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Some quick take-aways from today’s net neutrality oral arguments.\u00a0 For a timeline of net neutrality, click here<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Today, Verizon and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had an oral argument before the D.C. Circuit Court debating the network neutrality rules. The argument took place before Judge Rogers, Judge Tatel, and Senior Judge Silberman (\u201csenior\u201d means \u201ctechnically retired but still hearing cases when I feel like it\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Short version: three judges, three opinions. Judge Rogers seemed most likely to affirm the FCC and the rule. Judge Tatel wanted to eliminate the non-discrimination rule but keep the no blocking rule. Judge Silberman wanted to get rid of both the no blocking rule and the no discrimination rule \u2013 although would be happy to get rid of all the rules because the FCC did not make an explicit finding of \u201cmarket power.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mind you, interpreting an oral argument is always a chancy business. But assuming my read out is correct, how did 3 judges reviewing the same rules and the same record come out in such different places?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Questions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week, I pointed out that the court would look at two things:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Does the FCC have authority to create and enforce the net neutrality rules?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Even if the FCC has the authority to make the rule, is there something that prevents
    the FCC from having a network neutrality rule?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Everyone expected the court to focus on the first question, whether the FCC had authority to regulate broadband access services in the first place. But all three judges seemed comfortable with the idea that Congress has delegated the FCC authority to do some kind of regulation of broadband access under some set of circumstances, although Silberman was not happy that the FCC did not make an explicit finding of \u201cmarket power\u201d (even if everyone agreed the point of the rule is that, market power or not, Verizon is a potential bottleneck). No one else wanted to play amateur economist with Silberman, so the court seems likely to affirm the FCC\u2019s overall authority to regulate broadband access providers to promote broadband deployment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The panel then moved on to the second question: assuming the FCC has general authority to make some kind of rule under some conditions, does something prevent the FCC from adopting these particular rules? As noted before, there were two basic arguments. First, Verizon argued it had a first amendment right to block content on its network.\u00a0 This got some modest attention from Judge Silberman; but again, neither of the other judges seemed interested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The \u201cCommon Carriage\u201d Rule<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Verizon\u2019s other argument, that the statute prevents the FCC from regulating it as a \u201ccommon carrier\u201d when it provides broadband service<\/a>, got the bulk of the attention. Verizon argued that the \u201cno blocking other people\u2019s websites or applications\u201d and \u201cno (unreasonable) discrimination against other services or content\u201d treated Verizon\u2019s internet service as if it were a phone service \u2013 something Verizon says the Communications Act prohibits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The FCC argued that edge providers (sites and services that Verizon’s subscribers access) were not customers of Verizon, and that Verizon was not selling them any service. Verizon\u2019s customers are end users (e.g., individual customers and businesses buying broadband access service). The customer requests Verizon get the specific information or runs a specific service, which Verizon then can do however it wants (provided it does not block the service outright, demand some kind of second payment from the content provider\/edge service, or otherwise discriminate).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Judge Rogers appeared to be most sympathetic to the FCC\u2019s argument that because the edge providers are not Verizon\u2019s customers, the \u201cno common carriage rule\u201d does not apply. Judge Tatel and Judge Silberman clearly agreed with Verizon that if Verizon had to give users access to someone else\u2019s website or service, than that third party was getting a \u201cfree ride\u201d on Verizon\u2019s network. Where Judge Tatel and Judge Silberman disagreed, however, was whether the \u201cno common carrier rule\u201d allowed the FCC to require some kind of basic free transport, but could not prevent Verizon from negotiating separately with Google to give Google better service than, say, Bing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Judge Tatel seemed to say that as long as Verizon was free to offer Google better <\/em><\/strong>service than Bing, that the FCC could prevent Verizon from blocking Bing altogether. Judge Silberman seemed to think that if the Communications Act requires that Verizon has to be able to offer better service to Google, then it also requires that Verizon be free to block Bing (or any other search engine) altogether.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    What Happens Now?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The three judges now have to come to a decision where at least two of the three of them agree on a result. That could take some time, and they have no deadline for when to decide. The consensus of people is that Judge Tatel will eventually convince Judge Silberman, in which case we would have a \u201cno blocking but discrimination\/prioritizing applications or content is O.K.” rule. Or Judge Silberman will eventually convince Judge Tatel, and we have a “blocking, degrading or prioritization are totally O.K.” rule (Judge Silberman seemed to think the FCC could do notice of how badly you are being screwed by your ISP.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    But it is also possible that Judge Rogers will convince Judge Tatel that the question isn\u2019t really ripe yet. That\u2019s because this is a generic challenge to the rules (a \u201cprima facie<\/em>\u201d challenge) and not in the context of a specific set of facts (an \u201cas applied\u201d challenge). Therefore, the court can affirm the FCC\u2019s general authority and decide the \u201cno discrimination\u201d question when presented with actual facts that would say whether this was \u201ccommon carriage\u201d or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    As a middle ground, the judges might remand the rules for more explanation from the FCC about where the line is on \u201ccommon carriage\u201d and whether or not the no blocking can stand on its own without no discrimination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Whatever the court decides, it will have broad implications beyond network neutrality. But until the court makes a decision, it is hard to guess how things will play out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Some quick take-aways from today’s net neutrality oral arguments.  For background on the hearing, start here<\/a>, and for a timeline of net neutrality, click here<\/a>.
    <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

    \n

    <\/p>\n

    Today, Verizon and the Federal Communications Commission
    \n(FCC) had an oral argument before the D.C. Circuit Court debating the network neutrality rules. The argument
    \ntook place before Judge Rogers, Judge Tatel, and Senior Judge Silberman
    \n(\u201csenior\u201d means \u201ctechnically retired but still hearing cases when I feel like
    \nit\u201d). You can listen to the 2+ hour oral argument I sat through this morning     here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[13],"class_list":["post-15900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-insights","tag-net-neutrality"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhat Happened At The Net Neutrality Oral Argument - Public Knowledge<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Public Knowledge promotes freedom of expression, an open internet, and access to affordable communications tools and creative works. 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