Verizon said Thursday that it had filed suit in the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in an effort to challenge the FCC's authority over net neutrality. The FCC voted on December 21 to prohibit ISPs from selectively throttling web traffic on a 3-2 vote.
The court is the same one that struck down an earlier attempt by the communications agency to stop Comcast from throttling BitTorrent traffic. At the time, the three-judge panel said that Congress has never given the FCC the power to regulate an ISP's network management policies.
The company said in a statement that it believes the authority given by the order exceeds any given by Congress, and "creates uncertainty for the communications industry, innovators, investors and consumers." Verizon has long been a vocal critic of the FCC's moves to impose net neutrality regulations on the industry, including going as far as to attempt to strike its own neutrality deal with Google in August of last year.
Supporters of net neutrality took issue with Verizon's move, and asked the FCC to act only days after the deal became public. They claimed the industry was attempting to write its own rules, and pointed out the company had conveniently left out regulation of wireless traffic.
"Verizon has long been committed to preserving an open internet and meeting the needs of our customers," Verizon deputy counsel Michael Glover said in a statement. "Today's filing is the result of a careful review of the FCC's order."
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