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An appeals court ruling on Thursday delayed the reintroduction of net neutrality rules three months after the Federal Communications Commission voted to bring it back.
In the decision, the Ohio Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals says that FCC has failed to provide enough justification to enact the regulations against the wishes of petitioning internet service providers, who would be treated as utilities under the rules. Net neutrality requires that ISPs treat all internet traffic equally and does not condone practices including internet traffic throttling or requiring anyone to pay more for their internet content to be prioritized.
Net neutrality also granted the FCC the power to regulate the conduct of ISPs if the agency felt internet providers were acting in ways that hurt competition or consumers.
In the ruling, the court said, "The final rule implicates a major question, and the commission has failed to satisfy the high bar for imposing such regulations."
The head of the FCC says the agency will continue working toward reestablishing the rules.
"The American public wants an internet that is fast, open, and fair," FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement Thursday. "Today's decision by the Sixth Circuit is a setback but we will not give up the fight for net neutrality."
An opposing member of the five-person FCC praised the Sixth Circuit's blockage of the rules. "A good win," Commissioner Brendan Car wrote on the X social network, describing the rules as an "unlawful attempt to increase government control of the Internet."
Further review of the issue is punted to sometime between Oct. 28 to Nov. 1 when oral arguments will be heard. The decision also states that US congressional action may be required for net neutrality to return.
Sen. Edward Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts, said in a post on X that the court's ruling was unacceptable. He wrote: "We need net neutrality to protect the free and open internet and ensure that internet gatekeepers cannot control what we see, who we talk with, and how we communicate online."
The decision is a setback for the Biden administration, which has been working to reinstate net neutrality since 2022. Net neutrality was introduced in 2015 but was repealed in 2017 during the Trump administration, which went into effect the following year.