Today, the US Court of Appeals, DC Circuit, has ruled in Verizon v. FCC that the FCC lacks the authority to impose net neutrality on broadband ISPs. The FCC required ISPs in 2010 to practice "net neutrality," meaning that internet providers could not discriminate against companies that offered competing services; in other words, all data packets were to be treated equally, regardless of origin.

This ruling paves the way for media conglomerates to charge companies with competitive services to ones they offer, or ones they simply don't like, extra for their services or block them outright. Under these rules, websites and services like Spotify, Pandora, Instagram and Netflix could conceivably be forced out of business by hefty surcharges. It is anti-competitive and anti-consumer and will result in fewer consumer options at higher cost.