Appeals Court Rules FCC Lacks Authority to Enforce Net Neutrality

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has turned in its decision regarding the 2008 decison made by the FCC to force Comcast to cease filtering BitTorrent traffic, which led to Comcast filing suit against the FCC on grounds that FCC lacked such authority to force broadband internet service providers to give equal treatment to all Internet traffic.

The FCC later testified during court testimony that it was using so called ancillary powers that allow the agency to fulfill its primary role as a federal regulator while interpreting its role as such according to policy statements made by the United States Congress.

The Appeals Court has now decided that the above testimony was not enough to convince it that the FCC had such authority in the first place, with the court ruling in favor of Comcast earlier this morning in an opinion filing available here.

With the ruling, the FCC has suffered a setback as it tries to formulate an official policy regarding net neutrality and to formulate the national broadband plan first proposed last month, which would require it to have clear authority over broadband access.