Comcast filed a lawsuit against the Federal Communications Commission Thursday after the federal agency determined to impose penalties on the cable giant for unlawfully blocking user Web traffic. "We filed this appeal in order to protect our legal rights and to challenge the basis on which the Commission found that Comcast violated federal policy in the absence of pre-existing legally enforceable standards or rules," said David Cohen, executive vice president of Comcast, in a statement. "We are compelled to appeal because we strongly believe that, in this particular case, the Commission"s action was legally inappropriate and its findings were not justified by the record."
Comcast"s lawsuit followed in response to an FCC 3-2 vote last month to sanction Comcast for what it deemed were arbitrary restrictions against Web users who share video, music and other media, which violated regulations regarding its open Internet policies. The FCC"s "net neutrality" laws, which were established by the federal agency in August 2005, require that all Internet traffic be treated equally and establish consumer rights to freely access the Web.