By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – California is expected to implement its historic net neutrality law soon under a judge’s decision on Tuesday, almost three years after the state legislature enacted the measure, the state attorney general’s office said. .
US Judge John Mendez for the Eastern District of California said in an oral decision that it would not block the law from coming into effect, as four groups in the telecommunications and broadband industry sought, his office confirmed. California’s 2018 law prohibited Internet service providers from blocking or restricting traffic or offering paid highways.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra applauded the decision. “The ability of an Internet service provider to block, slow down or speed up content based on the user’s ability to pay for the service degrades the very idea of a competitive market and the open transfer of information at the center of our world more and more digital and connected, “he said.
The four industry groups that sued said in a joint statement that they will decide the next steps. “A state-to-state approach to Internet regulation will confuse consumers and deter investment in the network, just as the importance of broadband for everyone has never been more apparent,” the groups said.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of former President Barack Obama, a Democrat, adopted net neutrality rules in 2015. These rules were overturned in 2017 by President Donald Trump’s FCC, a Republican. The California legislature responded by adopting a state law requiring network neutrality in August 2018.
Earlier this month, the United States Department of Justice withdrew its Trump-era legal challenge to California law after President Joe Biden, a Democrat, took office.
Proponents of net neutrality argue that protections guarantee a free and open internet. Broadband and telecommunications business groups say their pre-Internet legal basis was out of date and that they would discourage investment.
California has agreed not to enforce the law while legal proceedings are in progress.
(Reporting by David Shepardson, edited by Rosalba O’Brien and Cynthia Osterman)