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Net neutrality – now it is the regulators’ turn to bring clarity

By EDRi · December 15, 2015

Our work on net neutrality is not over. Today, 15 December, the Body of European Regulators of Electronic Communications (BEREC) Net Neutrality Expert Working Group is hearing civil society and consumer organisations’ views on how it should address the lack of clarity of the Regulation that was recently adopted on net neutrality.

“BEREC has the opportunity to strongly defend net neutrality in Europe, as the US regulator, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has done. We believe that the EU regulation gives BEREC the tools to ensure that net neutrality will be protected in Europe.”

said Joe McNamee, Executive Director of European Digital Rights.

On 27 October 2015, the European Parliament voted for a Regulation on open internet access and roaming. While we achieved a fairly good result, the regulation is somewhat vague in relation to four key points: specialised services, zero rating, traffic management and congestion, the missing pieces that should be clarified to fully achieve net neutrality in the EU. The Regulation says that BEREC should produce implementation guidelines to provide clarity to the interpretation of these rules.

EDRi, together with other civil society organisations, is engaging with BEREC to make sure these guidelines will protect the open, innovative, democratic internet and that they will ensure respect of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. EDRi will remain closely involved in this process, providing detailed submissions to BEREC, facilitating contacts between citizens and the national regulators that are members of BEREC and responding to BEREC’s formal public consultation in June 2016.

Read more:

Statement on BEREC’s work to produce guidelines for the implementation of net neutrality provisions of the TSM regulation
http://berec.europa.eu/eng/document_register/subject_matter/berec/press_releases/5588-statement-on-berecs-work-to-produce-guidelines-for-the-implementation-of-net-neutrality-provisions-of-the-tsm-regulation

Net Neutrality: document pool II
https://edri.org/net-neutrality-document-pool-2/

ENDitorial: A system you never heard of undermined net neutrality
https://edri.org/system-you-never-heard-of-undermined-net-neutrality/

Infographics: Net neutrality and encryption
https://edri.org/files/NN_infographics_encryption.pdf

Infographics: Net neutrality and zero rating
https://edri.org/files/NN_infographics_zerorating.pdf

Infographics: Net neutrality and specialised services
https://edri.org/files/NN_infographics_specialisedservices.pdf

Regulation on net neutrality
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32015R2120

EDRi: Missing pieces of net neutrality
https://edri.org/files/NN_MissingPieces.png

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