Picture this scenario. You run a small ISP in a major urban center. You begin getting phone calls from disgruntled customers who say it's taking them over 30 hops to get from point to point. You get notification from your upstream connection provider that all of your assigned IP numbers will soon be changed, creating havoc for your customers. The costs of these changes, passed on to your customers, creates a second firestorm.
Major customers begin to look for alternative ISPs.
You lose your largest customer. You call your regional telco to perform loopback testing to see where the problems are. You begin to wonder if something is going on. When traffic from small ISPs is selectively dampened, it makes you wonder if there isn't some violation of the law taking place. The fact is that trade laws which might have protected you under traditional circumstances don't pertain to the Internet.