A long-running legal fight over government rules that need Internet providers to handle all Web traffic is back for another round before a federal appeals court.

Telecom and cable sector groups will advocate a three-judge panel on Friday to throw out regulations that prohibit online content from being blocked or directed into slow and fast lanes.

The rules, which like a public utility handle broadband for the very first time, have gained praise from content businesses and consumer advocates including crowdfunding website Kickstarter and Netflix. They would like to stop Internet providers from falsifying data offering paid preferential treatment to some content over others or going across their networks.

But providers like Verizon, Comcast and AT&T say innovation wills jeopardize and undermine investment in broadband infrastructure.

In an additional twist, among the judges hearing the most recent case has authored opinions striking down the FCC’s earlier efforts to apply web neutrality.

Judge David Tatel ruled as the commission in the time classified broadband as an information service the FCC rules weren’t grounded in legal authority. After Tatel’s 2014 opinion, the bureau reclassified broadband providers as common carriers similar to utilities, giving power to enforce the newest rules to it.

“Itis a legal chess game essentially,” Cherry said. “They never should have classified it as an advice service in the very first place.”

President Bill Clinton in 1994 made to the court Tatel. The other judges on the panel are Sri Srinivasan, named by President Barack Obama, and Stephen Williams, named by President Ronald Reagan.

Setting Internet service in exactly the same regulatory camp as telephone service means suppliers must act in the “public interest” when providing service. It provides power to the authorities to investigate complaints about excessive or unfair behaviour by service providers, including commanding Internet traffic in ways that encourages their own financial interest.

Obama supported the concept of web neutrality this past year, calling on the FCC to control Internet service like it does other public utilities to safeguard consumers.

Telecom and cable adversaries say in reclassifying broadband as a common carrier, the FCC went too far. They claim the new rules will keep them from recovering costs for connecting to broadband hogs like Netflix that create an immense number of Internet traffic.

Defending the regulations, the FCC said in court briefs that it’s the power “to make sure the Internet, the principal method of communicating in the 21st century, stays open to any or all Americans.”