East St. Louis Fighting Dismissal of Streaming Service Franchise Fees Suit

The “public Internet” exception in Illinois' Cable and Video Competition Law, which exempts ISPs, doesn't apply to streaming services since their sole offering is video programming, East St. Louis said Tuesday in an opposition to streamers seeking dismissal of the city's franchise fees litigation. In the docket 3:21-cv-00561 opposition filed with the U.S. District Court in East St. Louis, the city said the streaming defendants can't reasonably dispute they use public rights of ways, because without them they couldn't deliver video programming. It said the fee isn't a tax and thus doesn't violate the Internet Tax Freedom Act. Counsel for defendants Netflix, Disney, Apple, Hulu, WarnerMedia, Amazon, CBS Interactive, YouTube, Curiosity Stream, Peacock, DirecTV and Dish Network didn't comment. The city is one of an array of localities pursuing franchise fees litigation against streaming services (see 2112230003).