[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5417 Reported in House (RH)]
Union Calendar No. 303
109th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 5417
[Report No. 109-541]
To amend the Clayton Act with respect to competitive and
nondiscriminatory access to the Internet.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
May 18, 2006
Mr. Sensenbrenner (for himself, Mr. Conyers, Mr. Boucher, and Ms. Zoe
Lofgren of California) introduced the following bill; which was
referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
June 29, 2006
Additional sponsors: Mr. Andrews and Mr. Visclosky
June 29, 2006
Reported with an amendment, committed to the Committee of the Whole
House on the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed
[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed
in italic]
[For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on May 18,
2006]
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To amend the Clayton Act with respect to competitive and
nondiscriminatory access to the Internet.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Internet Freedom and
Nondiscrimination Act of 2006''.
SEC. 2. PURPOSES.
The purposes of this Act are to promote competition, to facilitate
trade, and to ensure competitive and nondiscriminatory access to the
Internet.
SEC. 3. AMENDMENTS TO THE CLAYTON ACT.
The Clayton Act (15 U.S.C. 12 et seq.) is amended--
(1) by redesignating section 28 as section 29,
(2) by inserting after section 27 the following:
``discrimination by broadband network providers
``Sec. 28. (a) It shall be unlawful for any broadband network
provider--
``(1) to fail to provide its broadband network services on
reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms and conditions such that
any person can offer or provide content, applications, or
services to or over the network in a manner that is at least
equal to the manner in which the provider or its affiliates
offer content, applications, and services, free of any
surcharge on the basis of the content, application, or service;
``(2) to refuse to interconnect its facilities with the
facilities of another provider of broadband network services on
reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms or conditions;
``(3)(A) to block, to impair, to discriminate against, or
to interfere with the ability of any person to use a broadband
network service to access, to use, to send, to receive, or to
offer lawful content, applications or services over the
Internet; or
``(B) to impose an additional charge to avoid any conduct
that is prohibited by this subsection;
``(4) to prohibit a user from attaching or using a device
on the provider's network that does not physically damage or
materially degrade other users' utilization of the network; or
``(5) to fail to clearly and conspicuously disclose to
users, in plain language, accurate information concerning any
terms, conditions, or limitations on the broadband network
service.
``(b) If a broadband network provider prioritizes or offers
enhanced quality of service to data of a particular type, it must
prioritize or offer enhanced quality of service to all data of that
type (regardless of the origin or ownership of such data) without
imposing a surcharge or other consideration for such prioritization or
enhanced quality of service.
``(c) Nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent a
broadband network provider from taking reasonable and nondiscriminatory
measures--
``(1) to manage the functioning of its network, on a
systemwide basis, provided that any such management function
does not result in discrimination between content,
applications, or services offered by the provider and
unaffiliated provider;
``(2) to give priority to emergency communications;
``(3) to prevent a violation of a Federal or State law, or
to comply with an order of a court to enforce such law;
``(4) to offer consumer protection services (such as
parental controls), provided that a user may refuse or disable
such services;
``(5) to offer special promotional pricing or other
marketing initiatives; or
``(6) to prioritize or offer enhanced quality of service to
all data of a particular type (regardless of the origin or
ownership of such data) without imposing a surcharge or other
consideration for such prioritization or quality of service.
``(d) For purposes of this section--
``(1) the term `affiliate' means--
``(A) a person that directly or indirectly owns,
controls, is owned or controlled by, or is under the
common ownership or control with another person; or
``(B) a person that has a contract or other
arrangement with a content or service provider
concerning access to, or distribution of, such content
or such service;
``(2) the term `broadband network provider' means a person
engaged in commerce that owns, controls, operates, or resells
any facility used to provide broadband network service to the
public, by whatever technology and without regard to whether
provided for a fee, in exchange for an explicit benefit, or for
free;
``(3) the term `broadband network service' means a 2-way
transmission service that connects to the Internet and
transmits information at an average rate of at least 200
kilobits per second in at least one direction, irrespective of
whether such transmission is provided separately or as a
component of another service; and
``(4) the term `user' means a person who takes and uses
broadband network service, whether provided for a fee, in
exchange for an explicit benefit, or for free.'', and
(3) by amending subsection (a) and the 1st sentence of
subsection (b) of section 11 by striking ``and 8'' and
inserting ``8, and 28''.
Union Calendar No. 303
109th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 5417
[Report No. 109-541]
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To amend the Clayton Act with respect to competitive and
nondiscriminatory access to the Internet.
_______________________________________________________________________
June 29, 2006
Reported with an amendment, committed to the Committee of the Whole
House on the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed