I 

109TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 5417 

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 

A BILL 

To amend the Clayton Act with respect to competitive and 

nondiscriminatory access to the Internet. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Internet Freedom and 

5 Nondiscrimination Act of 2006’’. 

6 SEC. 2. PURPOSES. 

7 The purposes of this Act are to promote competition, 

8 to facilitate trade, and to ensure competitive and non9 discriminatory access to the Internet. 


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1 SEC. 3. AMENDMENTS TO THE CLAYTON ACT. 

2 The Clayton Act (15 U.S.C. 12 et seq.) is amended— 

3 (1) by redesignating section 28 as section 29, 

4 (2) by inserting after section 27 the following: 

5 ‘‘DISCRIMINATION BY BROADBAND NETWORK PROVIDERS

6 ‘‘SEC. 28. (a) It shall be unlawful for any broadband 

7 network provider— 

8 ‘‘(1) to fail to provide its broadband network 

9 services on reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms 

10 and conditions such that any person can offer or 

11 provide content, applications, or services to or over 

12 the network in a manner that is at least equal to the 

13 manner in which the provider or its affiliates offer 

14 content, applications, and services, free of any sur15 charge on the basis of the content, application, or 

16 service; 

17 ‘‘(2) to refuse to interconnect its facilities with 

18 the facilities of another provider of broadband net19 work services on reasonable and nondiscriminatory 

20 terms or conditions; 

21 ‘‘(3)(A) to block, to impair, to discriminate 

22 against, or to interfere with the ability of any person 

23 to use a broadband network service to access, to use, 

24 to send, to receive, or to offer lawful content, appli25 cations or services over the Internet; or 


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1 ‘‘(B) to impose an additional charge to avoid 

2 any conduct that is prohibited by this subsection; 

3 ‘‘(4) to prohibit a user from attaching or using 

4 a device on the provider’s network that does not 

5 physically damage or materially degrade other users’ 

6 utilization of the network; or 

7 ‘‘(5) to fail to clearly and conspicuously disclose 

8 to users, in plain language, accurate information 

9 concerning any terms, conditions, or limitations on 

10 the broadband network service. 

11 ‘‘(b) If a broadband network provider prioritizes or 

12 offers enhanced quality of service to data of a particular 

13 type, it must prioritize or offer enhanced quality of service 

14 to all data of that type (regardless of the origin or owner15 ship of such data) without imposing a surcharge or other 

16 consideration for such prioritization or enhanced quality 

17 of service. 

18 ‘‘(c) Nothing in this section shall be construed to pre19 vent a broadband network provider from taking reasonable 

20 and nondiscriminatory measures— 

21 ‘‘(1) to manage the functioning of its network 

22 to protect the security of such network and 

23 broadband network services if such management 

24 does not result in discrimination among the content, 

25 applications, or services on the network; 


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1 ‘‘(2) to give priority to emergency communica2 tions; or 

3 ‘‘(3) to prevent a violation of a Federal or State 

4 law, or to comply with an order of a court to enforce 

5 such law. 

6 ‘‘(d) For purposes of this section— 

7 ‘‘(1) the term ‘affiliate’ means— 

8 ‘‘(A) a person that directly or indirectly 

9 owns, controls, is owned or controlled by, or is 

10 under the common ownership or control with 

11 another person; or 

12 ‘‘(B) a person that has a contract or other 

13 arrangement with a content or service provider 

14 concerning access to, or distribution of, such 

15 content or such service; 

16 ‘‘(2) the term ‘broadband network provider’ 

17 means a person engaged in commerce that owns, 

18 controls, operates, or resells any facility used to pro19 vide broadband network service to the public, by 

20 whatever technology and without regard to whether 

21 provided for a fee, in exchange for an explicit ben22 efit, or for free; 

23 ‘‘(3) the term ‘broadband network service’ 

24 means a 2-way transmission service that connects to 

25 the Internet and transmits information at an averVerDate Aug 31 2005 22:27 May 22, 2006 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5417.IH H5417

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1 age rate of at least 200 kilobits per second in at 

2 least one direction, irrespective of whether such 

3 transmission is provided separately or as a compo4 nent of another service; and 

5 ‘‘(4) the term ‘user’ means a person who takes 

6 and uses broadband network service, whether pro7 vided for a fee, in exchange for an explicit benefit, 

8 or for free.’’, and 

9 (3) by amending subsection (a) and the 1st sen10 tence of subsection (b) of section 11 by striking 

11 ‘‘and 8’’ and inserting ‘‘8, and 29’’. 

Æ 


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