When the FCC voted in the Title II reclassification in February, it was clear that lawmakers and companies would do their best to take down the new rules legally with any tool that they had. Less than two months after the original vote, companies has submitted not one, but two lawsuits against the FCC's ruling.
"US Telecom, a Washington-based telecommunications trade group, and Alamo Broadband, an Elmendorf, Texas-based broadband provider, filed individual legal actions on March 23 asking that courts turn aside the new FCC rules," reports EWeek.
These two cases deal with two different aspects of the law. The US Telecom case is in regard to a protective petition that US Telecom submitted for review to the U.S. Court of Appeals.The company's petition is "a precautionary move to preserve procedural rights in challenging the Federal Communications Commission's open Internet order."
US Telecom says in its public statement that the group "strongly supports open Internet rules, but disagrees with the Federal Communications Commission's decision to reclassify broadband Internet providers as common carriers in the order adopted March 12."
Alamo Broadband filed a petition in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in Texas. Alamo asks in its petition for the courts to block the FCC's new rules since it considers them to be "arbitrary, capricious and an abuse of discretion."
A spokesman from the FCC told EWeek that "the agency has received notice of the two legal filings, which are challenging its recent Open Internet Order."
"We believe that the petitions for review filed today are premature and subject to dismissal," the spokesman said.