Appeals court strikes down net neutrality rules • 10:20 AM

• A federal appeals court has struck down the FCC's net neutrality rule, which prohibits wireline (but not wireless) service providers from discriminating against or providing preferential treatment for certain types of data traffic .


• Though the ruling is likely to be appealed further, it represents a major win for AT&T ( T -0.3% ) and Verizon ( VZ -0.5% ), who have been lobbying hard to do away with net neutrality. It's a loss for Netflix ( NFLX -0.1% ), whose heavy bandwidth consumption has drawn the ire of numerous ISPs (many of whom it directly or indirectly competes with), as well as other major Web traffic sources.


• The ruling comes a week after AT&T's mobile unit triggered an uproar by launching its Sponsored Data program.