Courtesy photo.

The Federal Communications Commission's recently announced plan to end net neutrality sparked backlash from tech companies including Netflix and Google last week.

Many of these companies said repealing the 2015 Open Internet Order, an Obama-era regulation that ensures internet service providers can't block websites or create paid “fast lanes” online, would be bad for competition and consumers.

One of the most vocal opponents of the new plan is Michael Cheah, the general counsel of online video platform Vimeo and a longtime advocate for an open internet.

Cheah spoke with reporter Caroline Spiezio about how GCs can plan for the changes that could come if the FCC vote to repeal net neutrality is successful in December, as many expect it to be. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Corporate Counsel: The FCC has officially unveiled its plan to end net neutrality. What happens next?

Michael Cheah: It's almost pretty certain [the vote is] going to go the way they expect it to, so it will become the rule, or the lack of rules will become a rule. For us, it represents a pretty big change in how we think about how content is regulated on the internet. We find it to be completely inconsistent with the progression to the 2015 order and a complete abdication on federal regulation on the entire internet infrastructure. It [repealing net neutrality] is not based on any real evidence or economic analysis, so there's almost certainly going to be a challenge to it and we'll probably be a part of it. In terms of lobbying and getting our concerns heard, we're going to continue to be vocal on this.

You mentioned future litigation in a blog post you authored following the FCC's announcement. What type of legal action do you see happening?

The companies that will be involved in the actual appeal, their legal heads will be involved. I'll be personally involved. If people want to get in on this now, they should. There is room for that to happen with less than a month to voting.

How can in-house lawyers at tech companies prep for the massive changes (potentially) ahead? Will there be changes in compliance and new liabilities for companies?

In the near term, probably not so much. We're not going to see an immediate turn to websites being blocked, but its a longer-term slide into a business model that looks more like cable where people have to pay to play. Some of these changes be invisible to some people, but if a company becomes big enough they'll see, because they'll be asked to pay more. The bigger problem isn't that it manifests itself in visible ways, but that [the harm isn't] readily seen by people. At the end of the day you'll have a very small group of companies that control what content gets prioritized on the internet and it won't be transparent what's going on. Companies should stay vigilant and listen to their users, and react very quickly when they hear that another party seems to have better access speeds.

Have you spoken with other GCs about this? What's the general mood right now?

I think everyone's disappointed in what came out. It wasn't unexpected. Chairman [Ajit] Pai made it clear what he wanted to do. If there's any surprise, its how sweeping it was and how much of a rollback it was. It wasn't changing a few things, it was completely sweeping back the rules. In doing so, I think the FCC may have overreached.