Internet Access Task Force Will Examine Issues Raised By Converging Technologies

Press Release, Sep 06, 2006

Federal Trade Commission Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras today told a meeting of the Progress & Freedom Foundation that she has formed an Internet Access Task Force to examine issues being raised by converging technologies and regulatory developments, and to educate and inform the enforcement, advocacy and education initiatives of the Commission. “I also have asked the Internet Access Task Force to address what is likely the most hotly debated issue in communications, so-called ‘network neutrality,’” she said.

“The FTC’s Internet Access Task Force is looking carefully at the issues raised by calls for network neutrality laws. . . . I urge caution in proceeding on the issue. I . . . question the starting assumption that government regulation, rather than the market itself under existing laws, will provide the best solution to a problem,” Majoras said.

Majoras said there are points that should be considered before enactment of legislation to regulate the Internet, since regulation will have impact “for years to come.”

“The FTC frequently is asked to weigh in on proposed legislation and policies, and we virtually always assert the principle that, absent clear evidence of market failure or consumer harm, policymakers should not enact blanket prohibitions of particular forms of business conduct or business models or place requirements on how business is conducted.” Read more at ftc.gov