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EU: Net neutrality law puts Digital Single Market at risk GSMA warns

By  |  October 12, 2016

Industry body says strict new rules are incompatible with the EU’s own net neutrality legislation.

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    Strict net neutrality rules adopted by the Netherlands this week are jeopardising the development of the Digital Single Market, the GSMA has warned.

    Amendments to the Telecommunications Act that ban zero-rating – where usage of a certain service or category of services does not count against a customer’s data allowance – were passed by the Dutch Senate on Tuesday.

    This runs counter to BEREC’s guidelines for implementing the European Union’s net neutrality law, which calls for national regulators to consider zero-rated pricing practices on a case-by-case basis.

    “The Dutch Net Neutrality law goes far beyond the intent of the EU regulation,” said Afke Schaart, the GSMA’s vice president for Europe, in a statement on Tuesday. “We therefore call on the European Commission to ensure the harmonised implementation of Europe’s open Internet rules.”

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