MLBAM Submits Formal Opposition Against FCC Proposal To Create Digital "Fast Lanes"

MLBAM has submitted a formal opposition to a proposal by the FCC to create digital “fast lanes” that would allow ISPs to offer different speeds to various online services. MLBAM Senior VP & General Counsel Michael Mellis, in a letter dated last week, said the FCC proposal “would serve only one purpose: for broadband ISPs to receive an economic windfall. ... Fast lanes would create new economic barriers for start-up entrepreneurs and innovators that have been critical to the growth of the Internet economy. As bad, since fast lane would necessarily mean there are slow lanes, they would amount to ‘picking winners and losers online,’ with broadband ISPs acting as fast lane ‘gatekeepers,’ precisely the opposite of the commission’s past policy.” MLBAM’s support of Net Neutrality was part of an open comment period for the much-debated FCC proposal. Numerous other technology companies have also decried the “fast lane” proposal, including Netflix, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Twitter and Yahoo.