EDRi and 72 other NGOs send letter to EU regulators on net neutrality

Today, EDRi joined forces with 72 other civil society organisations from the five continents of the world to ask European Telecom Regulators to uphold net neutrality in the current negotiations about the future of the Open Internet in the European Union.

The Body of European Regulators of Electronic Communication (BEREC) and the 28 telecom regulators are currently negotiating guidelines that will clarify the recently adopted net neutrality law in the EU. A public consultation will be launched by BEREC in June, lasting for twenty working days, as a result of which the final guidelines will have to be published by 30 August 2016.

BEREC has a crucial role in ensuring the open democratic internet. Failure will be bad for Europe and bad for the world

, said Joe McNamee, Executive Director of European Digital Rights (EDRi).

In this important letter, 73 NGOs from around the world ask the EU Regulators to establish strong guidelines for net neutrality in Europe. In order to respect the Regulation’s stated aim of ensuring “the continued functioning of the internet ecosystem as an engine of innovation”, we urge BEREC to adopt guidelines give real meaning to this goal, including:

• Careful consideration of so-called “Specialised Services”;
• The reaffirmation that zero rating is prohibited under the regulation; and
• Strictly non-discriminatory traffic management and a clear statement opposing intrusive traffic management that would restrict internet users’ privacy.

In order to fix some of the ambiguities of the EU net neutrality regulation, on 31 March EDRi and the SaveTheInternet coalition partners launched a consultation to give citizens more time to tell the regulators what they think about the open internet in Europe. EDRi is also part of RespectMyNet, which is a campaign to encourage internet users to report net neutrality violations all over the European Union.

Read the letter here:
https://edri.org/files/NN_letter_BEREC_20160502.pdf

Background information:

Timeline for the adoption of Net neutrality’s implementation guidelines
https://edri.org/files/netneutrality/NN_infographics_berec_timeline.png

Net neutrality pieces that BEREC needs to clarify
https://edri.org/files/netneutrality/NN_infographics_berec_glue.png

Deep Package Inspection: what is it and what does the EU regulation say?
https://edri.org/files/netneutrality/NN_infographics_DPI.png

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

EDRi’s first input to EU regulators on net neutrality guidelines (13.01.2016)
https://edri.org/edris-first-input-on-net-neutrality-guidelines/

Respect My Net: online platform to report net neutrality violations (03.03.2016)
https://edri.org/respect-my-net-online-platform-to-report-net-neutrality-violations/

Save the Internet – Final consultation to save the open Internet in Europe (31.03.2016)
https://edri.org/press-release-save-the-internet-final-consultation-to-save-the-open-internet-in-europe/