$300 million in 1996, to more than $1.6 billion in only the first half of 1999.

69

  This figure has 

continued to skyrocket since the forme r Chairman's departure from the Commission.  Early 

estimates of total U.S. online advertising expenditures in 2001 range between $6 and $8 billion.

70

Although a vibrant sector in the media marketplace, online advertising still is dwarfed by print, 

broadcast and other traditional advertising media, and its continued growth would be jeopardized 

by the selective regulations proposed by the FTC.  Cox urges the Commission not to single out 

firms engaged in the sale of Internet and Web services to businesses for coverage under the TSR.   

This proposal is grossly unfair, constitutionally unsound and it undermines the support both 

Congress and the administration have pledged for the rapid deployment of broadband Internet 

services. 

A. 

The Internet and Web Services Exception Violates the Equal Protection 

Clause. 

The equal protection clause of the Fifth Amendment requires  that all persons similarly 

situated should be treated alike, 

71

 and requires that laws must equally impose liabilities on 

parties, including corporations, in like circumstances.

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  Moreover, the guarantee of equal 

protection requires strict scrutiny of a legislative classification when, as with the case of the 

proposed Internet and Web services exception,  it interferes with the exercise of a fundamental 

right  like First Amendment rights.

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69

 Chairman Robert Pitofsky, 

Electronic Commerce and Beyond: Challenges of the New Digital Age

, Address at the 

Woodrow Wilson Center Sovereignty in the Digital Age Series (Feb. 10, 2000), 

at

http://www.ftc.gov/speeches/pitofsky/rpwilson2.htm. 

70

E Advertising Will Grow Despite General Ad Flatline

, eStatNews (Jan. 22, 2002), 

at

http://www.emarketer.com/estatnews/estats/eadvertising/20020122_gart.html. 

71

City of Cleburne v. Cleburne Living Center, Inc.

, 473 U.S. 432, 439 (1985). 

72

Williams v. Vermont

, 472 U.S. 14 (1985); 

Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. v. Ward

, 470 U.S. 869, 881 n. 9 (1985); 

Police Dep t v. Mosley

, 408 U.S. 92 (1972). 

73

Massachusetts Bd. of Retirement v. Murgia

, 427 U.S. 307, 312 (1976). 

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