Justin Fox, Columnist

Cable Companies, Lawsuits and Net Neutrality

Comcast and its allies backed the FCC into a corner. Now they may pay the price.

February 3, 2015 at 9:31 PM UTC

Justin Fox is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering business, economics and other topics involving charts. A former editorial director of the Harvard Business Review, he is author of “The Myth of the Rational Market.”

When is a cable company like a pizza-delivery service?
Photographer: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

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It looks like the Federal Communications Commission is indeed going to head down the path of regulating broadband Internet service as a public utility, albeit probably not one subject to price controls and such. The news slipped out yesterday, and it's supposed to become official on Thursday. Assuming it does happen, I can tell you just what will take place after that.

There will be lots of screaming and yelling, with the cable companies in particular predicting the end of Internet civilization, after which the FCC will eventually adopt the rule. Then, one or more of the big cable or phone companies will sue, and the case will make it to federal appeals court or maybe even the Supreme Court.