THE WAIT FOR REWARD HAS NOW ARRIVED FOR THOSE OF US WHO HAVE REFUSED TO RELINQUISH OUR COPPER VERIZON TELEPHONE LINE WHILE BEING SUCKED DRY BY VERIZON FOR PURCHASING FIOS AND A COPPER LINE.
MAKE THE COPPER KILLER, VERIZON PAY, AND LAUGH ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK.
VERIZON'S LAWYERS SCREAM MAKE MY DAY AND SUE VERIZON AND FILE YOUR PRICING COMPLAINTS NOW.
PERHAPS THE WALL STREET JOURNAL WILL PICK UP AND EVALUATE THIS SIMPLE MANEUVER TO MAKE VERIZON PAY?
Court Drama Beckons for Broadband
New Net Neutrality Rules Could Mean More Time in the Courtroom
ENLARGE
The Federal
Communications Commission on Thursday passed rules that reclassify
broadband as a utility and subject providers to stricter oversight.
Photo:
Bloomberg News
The rules, passed Thursday by the Federal Communications Commission, reclassify broadband as a utility and subject providers to stricter oversight. Among the rules’ potentially more onerous terms are provisions allowing regulators to determine whether a provider’s pricing and practices are “just and reasonable” and whether they constitute “unreasonable discrimination.”
If consumer groups, Internet companies or other parties believe a broadband provider to be acting in violation of these relatively vague categories, they can file a complaint with the FCC. But they can also simply take the matter up in court.
Indeed, Title II, the provision of telecom law that governs broadband under the new rules, allows parties wishing to challenge providers’ prices or business practices to sue them in any district court in the U.S. instead of going to regulators. Those found to be in violation of the law could be responsible for damages, including paying attorneys’ fees.
For cable and telecom companies, one fear beyond the long arm of government is that this could also lure plaintiffs’ lawyers to file class-action suits on behalf of broadband customers. Not only could this tie them up in lengthy, and potentially costly, court cases, it could also mean that even if a future FCC was dominated by more sympathetic Republicans, that might not be enough to spare providers from challenges.
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Write to Miriam Gottfried at Miriam.Gottfried@wsj.com
