"That is not the case, however." is indeed correct. The case is that Verizon does indeed act as a peer for business connections. Verizon is not just a consumer based end point on the internet. This is the crux of it all.
Verizon is charging customers for access to internet content and they're bringing that content in over a peer balanced connection with agreements in place, intended for use in an actual peering environment, by business costumers of Verizon who are paying to provide content in the same way that Netflix pays Level3 to provide their content over their peer connections.
The conflict here is that Netflix is paying to provide the content, Verizon's consumers are paying to get access to the content. That creates a connection chain that is unbalanced in some way. Verizon just wants that imbalance to be double payment for them and nobody else.
Verizon is charging customers for access to internet content and they're bringing that content in over a peer balanced connection with agreements in place, intended for use in an actual peering environment, by business costumers of Verizon who are paying to provide content in the same way that Netflix pays Level3 to provide their content over their peer connections.
The conflict here is that Netflix is paying to provide the content, Verizon's consumers are paying to get access to the content. That creates a connection chain that is unbalanced in some way. Verizon just wants that imbalance to be double payment for them and nobody else.