FTC pressed to get involved in net neutrality

Dozens of academics are asking the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to raise its voice in the fight over new net neutrality rules. 

A letter signed by 32 scholars on Monday was sent to the FTC urging the regulator to prevent the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from writing utility-style rules for Internet service providers, which they say could end up hurting consumers.

{mosads}The scholars, many of whom have advocated for free market positions, say the FCC rules could hamper “potentially pro-competitive conduct,” such as the ability of websites like Netflix to pay service providers such as Comcast for quicker access to their users. Critics of that behavior worry that those “fast lanes” would make it more difficult for small startup sites to succeed.

Reclassifying broadband Internet service so that it could be regulated as a public utility — as President Obama and others have urged — would lead to “a plethora of outdated regulations, price controls, and other burdens,” the academics wrote in their letter, which was organized by the International Center for Law and Economics. 

Instead, the scholars argued for a rule to “allow regulators to distinguish harmful from beneficial uses and to deter only the harmful ones.”

“The FCC needs to hear this message from the FTC, one of nation’s top sources of expertise in competition law and of economic talent inside government.”

The FCC’s attempt to write new regulations for Web service companies has come under increasing pressure in recent weeks, especially as the call has mounted from some corners for the agency to take the controversial step of reclassifying Internet service.

Republicans in Congress and other critics of tough rules have suggested that the FTC, which is charged with protecting people from unfair business practices, would be the better agency to prevent people from being abused by their Internet providers. Strong FCC rules, they argue, could end up hurting the market.