The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is responsible for telecommunications policy. It has been the focus of pubic attention regarding the internet for years now so moving authority back to a more obscure agency, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), is intended to confuse and slow challenges by those who favor a more open, less expensive internet.
The FTC's historic mission has been to combat anti-competitive behavior by corporations. Thanks to archaic definitions of competition, especially as now applied to the digital world, it is going to be tough to fight further consolidation and price rises. JL
John McKinnon reports in the Wall Street Journal:
The FTC focuses on enforcement of broad consumer protections, while the FCC is charged with consumer protection and promotion of communications networks. The FTC’s plodding reliance on case-by-case litigation, as opposed to the bright-line rules favored by the FCC, make it a weak consumer watchdog. The new regime is expected to give the carriers that control the internet’s pipes, such as Comcast and Verizon, more influence over the internet, as well as consumers’ choices
The federal cop that polices much of the internet is about to shift, a move that could lead to a fundamental reshaping of the online economy.
Under the Federal Communications Commission’s plans to step back from the top internet-enforcement job, the Federal Trade Commission will again regulate how internet-service providers operate, reassuming a role it held until two years ago. The shift, which the commission is expected to approve next month, will usher in a new and potentially dramatic phase of the internet’s development and the way consumers experience it.
The new regime is expected to give the carriers that control the internet’s pipes, such as Comcast Corp. and Verizon Communications Inc., more influence over the internet landscape, as well as consumers’ choices, at a time when the companies are developing ambitious plans for their online businesses.
Already, the planned shift is generating a vigorous debate over which regulatory approach is really best for the internet. Advocates of rules forged under the Obama administration say the proposed change promises to be a boon to the giant internet-service providers and is likely bad news for consumers.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, in a speech Tuesday defending the plan, said the FTC’s long history regulating the internet and its case-by-case approach make it well suited to the job. The FTC’s framework for protecting the internet as a whole “worked well in the past, and it will work well again,” he said.
The FTC focuses on enforcement of broad consumer protections against deceptive and unfair trade practices, while the FCC is charged with consumer protection and promotion of communications networks through a technocratic and rules-based approach.
The Obama administration’s 2015 net-neutrality rules effectively cut out the FTC from regulating internet service, by reclassifying internet-service providers as common carriers subject to utility-style regulation. They generally barred the carriers from blocking internet content or slowing services, or from favoring services through so-called fast lanes, with the aim of preventing them from becoming more dominant.
Once those rules are gone, internet-service providers will be able to cut deals with content companies to serve up their webpages more quickly. Whether such deals are considered anticompetitive or anticonsumer will be up to the FTC to decide on a case-by-case basis.
Critics of Mr. Pai’s plan say that the FTC’s plodding reliance on case-by-case litigation, as opposed to the bright-line rules favored by the FCC and many other agencies, make it a weak consumer watchdog.
“Trying to saddle the FTC with all this open-internet stuff…is likely to be unsatisfactory in the long term for consumers,” said Travis LeBlanc, a former FCC enforcement chief who is now at law firm Boies Schiller Flexner.
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