• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, June 10, 2008

Comcast has been hit with three additional lawsuits stemming from its traffic control practices.

The new cases were all filed last week, in state courts in California, Illinois and New Jersey. In all cases, the plaintiffs allege that Comcast violated state consumer protection laws by falsely promising speedy Web connections when, in fact, it was slowing traffic to some peer-to-peer sites.

"Comcast intentionally blocks its customers from using peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing and other Internet applications," the Illinois complaint alleges. "Comcast's customers were not told that Comcast would block or otherwise impede P2P file-sharing or any other Internet applications. On the contrary, they were assured by Comcast that they would receive 'unfettered access' to the Internet and its applications using the 'fastest Internet connection.'"

Plaintiffs in all of the lawsuits are seeking class-action status. A Comcast spokesman said that the company doesn't comment on pending litigation.

This round of lawsuits marks just the latest in a series of legal woes for Comcast relating to its traffic-shaping strategy. For at least the last year, Comcast has been slowing some visits to bandwidth-intensive file-sharing sites in an attempt to manage traffic on its network.

Revelations about the practice have also sparked a lawsuit in Washington, D.C. and a separate one in California. In addition, the Federal Communications Commission is still considering whether to fine Comcast or issue an injunction against the company in response to a complaint filed last year. That complaint accused Comcast of violating net neutrality principles the FCC set out in 2005.

Comcast's traffic-shaping efforts came to light last year, after an investigation by The Associated Press revealed Comcast was interfering with visits to file-sharing sites. Although some file-sharing sites are used by copyright infringers, many companies are using peer-to-peer technology to distribute lawful content.

Comcast has steadfastly denied permanently blocking traffic, but last year, conceded that it sometimes slows down visits to manage the network. Comcast's stance drew harsh comments from FCC Chair Kevin Martin, who publicly said that Internet service providers should disclose their traffic management efforts.

Several months ago, Comcast said it would develop a protocol-agnostic method of managing traffic. Last week, the company followed up by announcing plans to test a system that will slow down individual users based on how much bandwidth they consume rather than what type of service they're attempting to access.

But August Matteis Jr., the lawyer who filed the recent lawsuits, was skeptical. "There are a lot of issues with that--not the least is that we don't know that we can trust Comcast yet," he said. "We're just going on their word--and their word hasn't been that good so far."

Wendy Seltzer, a fellow at Harvard's Berkman Center, added that Comcast's traffic-shaping techniques might be problematic even if Comcast fully disclosed its practices. "To take the slightly broader view, I don't think that lawsuits based around misrepresentations get to the heart of the problem here," she said.

The bigger problem, she said, is that even if Comcast accurately discloses how it manages traffic, that still wouldn't be helpful to users, who often have limited options for broadband access.