FTC Says It May Be Unable To Regulate Comcast, Google, and Verizon (arstechnica.com)

The Federal Trade Commission is worried that it may no longer be able to regulate companies such as Comcast, Google, and Verizon unless a recent court ruling is overturned, ArsTechnica reports. From the article: The FTC on Thursday petitioned the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals for a rehearing in a case involving AT&T's throttling of unlimited data plans. A 9th Circuit panel previously ruled that the FTC cannot punish AT&T, and the decision raises questions about the FTC's ability to regulate any company that operates a common carrier business such as telephone or Internet service. While the FTC's charter from Congress prohibits it from regulating common carriers, the agency has previously exercised authority to regulate these companies when they offer non-common carrier services. But the recent court ruling said that AT&T is immune from FTC oversight entirely, even when it's not acting as a common carrier. It isn't clear whether the ruling sets an ironclad precedent preventing the FTC from regulating any company with a common carrier business.

Comments

Re:Break them up, then

[Gr8Apes]

Originally the Communications Act of 1934 which created the FCC also created a set of rules that prevented ownership issues. The FCC under the Bush Administration worked hard to repeal these restrictions, and now we have our wonderful mass media oligarchs that dictate what we like and what we watch. Something else we can pin on W.