The service provider for Internet streaming media company Netflix is not happy about the company blaming it for its apparent slow loading of content. Verizon Communications had threatened Netflix on Thursday with legal action if the latter does not stop displaying a notice to its subscribers when content loading appears to be slow, that read, "The Verizon network is crowded right now."
Verizon's general counsel Randy Milch wrote in a letter to his counterpart David Hyman at Netflix, "Netflix's false accusations have the potential to harm the Verizon brand in the marketplace. "This potential harm is broader than only the experience of a customer viewing Netflix content. The impression that Netflix is falsely giving our customers is that the Verizon network is generally ‘crowded' and troublesome."
In the letter, Milch also stressed the damage Netflix could inflict on Verizon's customer base, saying that it could lose customers for its FiOS broadband service. Milch also urged the streaming-video company to tell how many people have seen its notice, including date and times and the purported substantiation for the notice to be displayed.
Businessweek said that the cease-and-decease letter issued by Verizon's legal camp came following the number of Netflix subscribers who have began to notice the onscreen messages about Verizon.
In an email to address Businessweek's request for comment about Verizon's concerns about the company's congestion notice, spokesman Joris Evers fell short of saying whether Netflix would stop displaying the message. He wrote, "This is about consumers not getting what they paid for from their broadband provider. We are trying to provide more transparency, just like we do with the Netflix ISP Speed Index, and Verizon is trying to shut down that discussion. (The company last month began) testing ways to let consumers know how their Netflix experience is being affected by congestion on their broadband provider's network."
