Santa Clara, California resident Alex Nguyen has spent countless hours collecting and documenting every practice he believes to be against a free and open internet on Verizon's network. Dating back to 2012, Nguyen has logged 112 pages worth of alleged net neutrality violations with over 300 citations of evidence.
As it turns out, the FCC has not actually made a decision on any formal complaints regarding net neutrality. Although there were thousands of messages sent to the FCC voicing concerns over rolling back policies to protect online freedom, Nguyen was the only person to file a formal complaint on the issue.
The main difference between a formal and informal complaint is that formal complaints must go through a hearing process and end with an official response from the FCC. Informal complaints do not require any substantive response and may be largely dismissed by board members. Filing a formal complaint with the FCC is very similar to filing a court case and will set you back $225 in fees.
Ngyuen's complaint includes a variety of issues from Verizon blocking the use of certain phones and apps, bullying manufacturers to disable features such as FM radio, and outright lying about its own network. His chief complaint is not that Verizon is disabling features in the pursuit of profit, it's that there is "always this pattern of deception with Verizon," about why actions are being taken. Nguyen mentions Verizon has resorted to issuing statements about fraud prevention and not passing certain tests without disclosing any information to backup such claims.
In the final ruling that is expected any time now, Verizon could be fined, forced to take corrective actions, or could walk away from the issue without incident.