1、CRS INSIGHT Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress Legal SidebarLegal Sidebari i Net Neutrality: Will the FTC Have Authority Over Broadband Service Providers? March 20, 2018 The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (Ninth Circuit), sitting en banc, recently decided FTC v. AT&T Mobili
2、ty, which may affect the ability of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to police certain broadband Internet access service (BIAS) providers in the near future. Specifically, the court held that although common carrier services (e.g., landline and wireless telephone services) are generally exempted f
3、rom FTC oversight, if an entity provides both common carrier and non-common-carrier services, the FTC is not precluded from regulating that entitys non-common-carrier services. The ruling has ramifications in light of the recent decision by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) repealing so-ca
4、lled “net neutrality” rules. The new FCC rule would classify BIAS as an “information service” largely unregulated by the FCC. If the Ninth Circuit had held that the FTC lacks jurisdiction over an entity that provides common carrier services, it would have resulted in the FTC having jurisdiction over