In reaction to the release today of the DC Circuit's decision reviewing the FCC's Open Internet ("Net Neutrality") order, Free State Foundation President Randolph May issued the following statement:
"It's clear that the FCC won a victory in court today in furtherance of its ongoing efforts to regulate Internet service providers. But I hope it is not a final victory because I fear that, at the end of the day, America's consumers will be the losers. This is because such regulation in competitive markets almost invariably curtails investment and stifles innovation.
The court's decision is likely to further embolden the FCC -- and, unfortunately, governments around the world -- to regulate Internet services. This is especially so because, citing Chevron, the court granted the FCC a huge dose of deference. I hope that, upon further judicial review, the court's decision will be reversed in important respects.
In any event, one things is clear: It is time for Congress to update the Communications Act so that it addresses the proper scope of regulation of Internet service providers in the digital age. I have never suggested that some degree of FCC oversight is not proper. But the extent of the FCC's seemingly unfettered discretion over the Internet needs to be put within substantial bounds in a new Communications Act."
* * * Randolph J. May, President of the Free State Foundation, is a former FCC Associate General Counsel and a former Chairman of the American Bar Association's Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice. Mr. May is a current public member of the Administrative Conference of the United States, and a Fellow at the National Academy of Public Administration. Mr. May is a nationally recognized expert in communications law, Internet law and policy, and administrative law and regulatory practice. He is the author of more than 180 scholarly articles and essays on communications law and policy, administrative law, and constitutional law. Most recently, Mr. May is the co-author, with FSF Senior Fellow Seth Cooper, of the recently released The Constitutional Foundations of Intellectual Property and is the editor of the book, Communications Law and Policy in the Digital Age: The Next Five Years. He is the author of A Call for a Radical New Communications Policy: Proposals for Free Market Reform. And he is the editor of the book, New Directions in Communications Policy and co-editor of other two books on communications law and policy: Net Neutrality or Net Neutering: Should Broadband Internet Services Be Regulated And Communications Deregulation and FCC Reform. The Free State Foundation is a non-profit, independent free market-oriented think tank.
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