[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5994 Introduced in House (IH)]







110th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5994

       To amend the Clayton Act with respect to competitive and 
               nondiscriminatory access to the Internet.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 8, 2008

Mr. Conyers (for himself 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.

    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 2008''.

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''.
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