Conyer's Matter Of Antitrust: House Judiciary Committee Chairman Wants It Applied To Internet

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Source: Multichannel News

House Judiciary Committee chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) has signaled renewed interest in using antitrust law to protect free speech and market competition on the Internet.

In public comments Wednesday, Conyers expressed concern that cable and phone companies would use their dominant positions in the Internet-access market to distort political discourse and commercial activity, especially by charging fees to carry different types of content or traffic.

“If Congress acts, it will not be because we have decided to regulate. It will be because the Internet-service providers have imposed their own new regulation on the Internet, and are interfering with its healthy growth,” Conyers said at a network-neutrality hearing held by the Judiciary Committee’s Antitrust Task Force.

Conyers declared that antitrust law was the appropriate tool to combat anticompetitive actions in the Internet market, rather than prescriptive regulations drafted and supervised by the FCC.

Read more: http://www.multichannel.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6540885