Net gain for consumers
State Sen. Scott Wiener’s bill to restore online consumer protections abandoned by the federal government bounced back from an industry-driven gutting of the legislation in committee, survived a standoff with a competing bill by a powerful fellow Democrat, and, once it was finally passed by lawmakers, endured a long wait for the final nod from Gov. Jerry Brown, who signed it on the last possible day.
Just in case that left any doubt about the powerful forces aligned against the law, Trump administration officials announced their intention to sue the state and prevent it from taking effect within hours of Brown’s signature Sunday evening. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, adopting an awkward stance for a Deep South conservative, insisted that states have no rights in this instance. But California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, whose numerous lawsuits against the Trump administration include one challenging the Federal Communications Commission’s move to deregulate internet service providers, is spoiling for a fight.
President Trump’s FCC last year repealed the socalled net neutrality rules passed during Barack Obama’s administration, which would have prohibited companies such as Comcast, AT&T and Verizon from blocking, slowing or privileging certain traffic based on its source or content. California’s is the fourth state law to restore such protections and the most consequential.
The measure championed by Wiener, D-San Francisco, goes further than the original FCC rules by also forbidding companies from exempting certain traffic from data limits or charging content providers for access to consumers. More important, being a California law, it wields the economic and demographic weight of a state that has set national policy standards on environmental and other issues. It’s no wonder Sessions and others are so concerned.
The FCC’s reversal of the rules was a clear-cut case of a giveaway to wealthy corporate interests at the expense of the public. California has the potential to serve as a powerful check against that federal abdication of responsibility.