https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/j5nqk3/political-backlash-forces-fcc-to-abandon-plan-to-make-you-pay-dollar225-to-complain-about-your-isp

The FCC this week was scheduled to vote on a new proposal on public feedback that Senators and consumer activists say will make it easier for the agency to ignore your complaints. But the agency retreated from the planned vote after numerous reports outlined the agency’s agenda. As it stands, the FCC currently accepts two kinds of complaints from cable or broadband subscribers: formal and informal. Informal complaints are free but often ignored. In contrast, formal complaints cost a $225 processing fee and kick off a cumbersome legal process involving hearings and paperwork most users won’t have the time for. A fact sheet circulated by the FCC this claims the agency’s proposed rule change simply “streamlines and consolidates procedural rules” involving said complaints. But a letter sent to the FCC by Democratic Senators Frank Pallone Jr. and Mike Doyle claims that under the changes the FCC would have forwarded all informal complaints to ISPs without reading them, forcing consumers to pay a $225 fee if they want to be taken seriously by the agency. “Creating a rule that directs FCC staff to simply pass consumers' informal complaints on to the company and then to advise consumers that they file a $225 formal complaint if not satisfied ignores the core mission of the FCC working in the public interest,” the Senators complained. If the change is approved this week, the FCC will effectively be telling "consumers with limited means” that they “need to start an expensive and complicated formal legal process” before the FCC will seriously address their complaints, the Senators said.

News outlets were quick to declare that the FCC’s rule change would now result in users being forced to pay $225 to have their voices heard. In reality, users already were forced to pay such a fee for a formal complaint. In fact, only one person was willing to pay the fine to file a formal comment during the neutrality repeal (though it’s a doozy you should probably read). The FCC, as is common in the Trump era, was quick to dismiss media reports on the changes—and the Senators’ concerns—as “fake news.”