AT&T Inc. threw its name onto the growing pile of lawsuits
seeking to overturn the government's recent net neutrality
order.
The move Tuesday was a surprise, because companies had generally
said they would let their industry groups handle the legal
challenges. The suit pits AT&T against the Federal
Communications Commission, which put forward the net neutrality
rules and is reviewing the carrier's proposed $49 billion
acquisition of satellite television provider DirecTV.
AT&T now joins industry trade groups representing wireless
carriers, cable companies and Internet providers that have sued to
overturn the rules. The lawsuits arrived within a day of the rules
being published in the Federal Register, the starting gun for legal
challenges.
AT&T's filing is nearly identical to the ones by the
National Cable & Telecommunications Association, United States
Telecom Association and the CTIA, which represents wireless
carriers. The briefs are only a few pages and allege the rules are
arbitrary and capricious, and violate federal law.
Specifically, AT&T and the trade groups challenge the FCC's
decision to reclassify the Internet as a telecommunications
service, which subjects it to greater oversight under the rules
used to regulate the phone system as a utility.
The American Cable Association also filed a lawsuit Tuesday
seeking to overturn the rules.
AT&T's lawsuit is notable because the company stayed out of
the two previous lawsuits against net neutrality. In 2010, Comcast
successfully sued to overturn an attempt by the FCC to sanction it
for throttling a file sharing service, and Verizon successfully
sued to overturn new rules passed by the FCC.
AT&T and the trade groups have said they support net
neutrality but oppose the classification decision.
The cases, so far all filed in U.S. Court of Appeals for the
District of Columbia Circuit, will be consolidated into a single
case. If other cases are filed in other jurisdictions within 10
days of publication in the Federal Register, a lottery will be held
to determine where the case is heard.
Write to Ryan Knutson at ryan.knutson@wsj.com
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