common carrier

American  

noun

1. Transportation. (in federal regulatory and other legal usage) a carrier offering its services at published rates to all persons for interstate transportation.

2. a public service or public utility company, as a telephone or telegraph company, engaged in the transmitting of messages for the public.

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common carrier British  

noun

1. a person or firm engaged in the business of transporting goods or passengers

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common carrier Cultural  

1. A company or individual providing public transportation on a regular basis in return for a fee that is uniformly charged to all users.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• common-carrier
  adjective
• common carriage
  noun

Example Sentences

As professor Eugene Volokh, one of the originators of the common carrier analogy, explains, what separates entities such as newspapers from entities such as phone companies is whether they produce a “coherent speech product.”

From Slate • Feb. 23, 2024

We cannot stress this enough: No, an Ohio judge did not declare Google a common carrier this week.

From Washington Post • May 26, 2022

Florida and Texas are both, to some extent, relying on the common carrier argument.

From The Verge • Dec. 16, 2021

If Google is declared a common carrier, the average web user’s experience of search would, for the most part, remain the same.

From New York Times • Jul. 7, 2021

Though the United States is a common carrier for carrying mails, it cannot be held liable because it is a branch of the government.

From Putnam's Handy Law Book for the Layman by Bolles, Albert Sidney