Civil rights organisations criticize the European Commission report on the implementation of the Regulation on Open Internet Access

The European Commission published a report to evaluate the implementation of the Open Internet access regulation (Regulation (EU) 2015/2120) after two years the rules came into force. According to the report, end-users and content application providers express great satisfaction with today’s state of affairs and Internet service providers (ISPs) also support the principles of an open internet. The Commission concludes that the regulation’s principles are appropriate in light of the development of the market, that they are effective in protecting the end-user and promoting the internet as an innovation engine, and that there is no need to amend the Regulation at this stage. Therefore, 31 human and civil rights organisations sent an open letter to the European Commission and the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC). The letter pointed out that there are many obvious problems in the report, such as the market entry barriers for participation in the class-based zero-rating offers, particularly affecting cross-border content and application providers in the Digital Single Market, the ongoing throttling of certain applications by telecom operators, and the complete lack of dissuasive and proportionate penalty provisions by member states.