Charter is using net neutrality repeal to fight lawsuit over slow speeds

The impending repeal of net neutrality rules is being used by Charter Communications to fight a lawsuit that alleges the company made false promises of fast Internet service. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman in February filed the lawsuit against Charter and its Time Warner Cable subsidiary. Meanwhile, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai submitted a proposal to roll back the FCC's net neutrality rules and to preempt state governments from regulating net neutrality on their own.  Schneiderman's lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court doesn't allege violations of the core net neutrality rules (i.e., blocking or throttling specific websites). Instead, the lawsuit says that TWC promised Internet speeds that it knew it could not deliver and that the slow speeds affected all kinds of websites and online services. The suit also alleges that TWC deceived the FCC in order to get a better score on the commission's evaluations of Internet speeds. But Charter told the court  that the impending preemption of states on net neutrality will help its case. Charter submitted Pai's net neutrality repeal proposal into the record and directed the judge to the order's attempt to preempt state regulations. "Charter submits that the FCC's proposed holdings regarding federal preemption nevertheless are instructive" and said it supports the company's motion to dismiss the case.