Comcast and Charter Communications want the Federal Trade Commission to preempt California’s data privacy law, and any other state laws regarding broadband service. In comments filed last week, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA), which serves as a Washington, D.C. lobbying front for Comcast, Charter and other cable companies, ask the FTC to tell state lawmakers and officials that they can’t enforce broadband service rules beyond what federal regulators think is appropriate (h/t to Jon Brodkin at Ars Technica for the pointer)…
The FTC should ensure that the Internet is subject to uniform, consistent federal regulations, including by issuing guidance explicitly setting forth that inconsistent state and local requirements are preempted…
California’s recently enacted California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 imposes numerous requirements that differ from, and even conflict with, federal law.174 Moreover, a patchwork of state-level rules applying only to BIAS providers would undercut existing federal policy basing enforcement on what information is collected and how it is used, rather than on who is collecting the information. Any FTC guidance to state entities on the need to ensure consistency with FTC and FCC policy and precedent in the Internet arena thus should cover privacy and data protection issues as well.
NCTA argues, falsely, that the market for broadband service is “substantially” and “increasingly”. That’s true in a few isolated areas, but overall the trend is toward greater monopolisation of the Internet service industry. The minimum speed level necessary to take advantage of what NCTA calls “a wide array of Internet-delivered video offerings” continues to rise. More and more, cable operators are the sole source of broadband service that meets contemporary needs.
Charter and Comcast are preparing a new line of attack against state-level privacy and network neutrality rules. If, as some legal experts believe, the Federal Communications Commission has taken itself out of the broadband regulation business, then the FTC is their best hope to kill those laws. Particularly California’s new consumer privacy law and its pending resurrection of network neutrality standards.