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 re-
ferred to the Committee on the Judiciary 
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 Representa-
tives 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 non-
discriminatory access to the Internet. 
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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 sur-
charge on the basis of the content, application, or 
service; 
‘‘(2) to refuse to interconnect its facilities with 
the facilities of another provider of broadband net-
work 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, appli-
cations or services over the Internet; or 
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‘‘(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 owner-
ship 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 pre-
vent a broadband network provider from taking reasonable 
and nondiscriminatory measures— 
‘‘(1) to manage the functioning of its network 
to protect the security of such network and 
broadband network services if such management 
does not result in discrimination among the content, 
applications, or services on the network; 
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‘‘(2) to give priority to emergency communica-
tions; or 
‘‘(3) to prevent a violation of a Federal or State 
law, or to comply with an order of a court to enforce 
such law. 
‘‘(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 pro-
vide broadband network service to the public, by 
whatever technology and without regard to whether 
provided for a fee, in exchange for an explicit ben-
efit, 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 aver-
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age rate of at least 200 kilobits per second in at 
least one direction, irrespective of whether such 
transmission is provided separately or as a compo-
nent of another service; and 
‘‘(4) the term ‘user’ means a person who takes 
and uses broadband network service, whether pro-
vided for a fee, in exchange for an explicit benefit, 
or for free.’’, and 
(3) by amending subsection (a) and the 1st sen-
tence of subsection (b) of section 11 by striking 
‘‘and 8’’ and inserting ‘‘8, and 29’’. 
Æ 
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