ECJ Insists On The Neutrality Of Internet Providers
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) insists on the neutrality of Internet providers. You are not allowed to offer packages that prefer certain applications such as social networks or music streaming services, ruled the ECJ in Luxembourg (Az: C-807/18 and C-39/19). With their landmark judgment, the top EU judges interpreted an Internet regulation from 2015 for the first time. This stipulates the "Net Neutrality". A communication from the court states that the court has now interpreted this regulation for the first time.
The tariffs of the Hungarian company Telenor, one of the most important providers of Internet access services there, were put to the test. The company offers data packages in the versions "MyChat" and "MyMusic". The general fast internet access is limited to one gigabyte, after that the access is considerably slower. Various services are excluded from this restriction: on "MyChat" for example Facebook, Whatsapp, Twitter and Instagram, on "MyMusic" Deezer, Apple Music or Spotify.
The Hungarian regulatory authority considered this to be inadmissible and banned these tariffs. Telenor sued and the competent court in Budapest referred the dispute to the ECJ. The now confirmed the assessment of the Hungarian authorities. The aim of the principle of neutrality is free access and free choice of users on the Internet. The data packages at issue here are suitable for restricting these end-user rights. They made it difficult to access offers that were not involved, including chat or music offers that were not involved. The services involved would, however, be preferred.
Actual user behavior is irrelevant
To what extent this also has consequences for offers on the German market in which music streaming does not burden the data volume, a CJEU spokesman did not want to take a position on ntv.de. He emphasized, however, that the judgment applies to all member states and that courts could use the judgment as a guide. A Telekom spokesman told ntv.de that the judgment does not affect the offers from T-Mobile. There you can no longer stream music, for example, if the booked data volume has been used up.
The more users subscribe to data packages such as "MyChat" and "MyMusic", the more this could lead to concentration and make access to alternative services more difficult. The ECJ emphasized that this principle of "non-discriminatory treatment of traffic" on the Internet is independent of actual user behavior. It therefore also applies if such data tariffs correspond to the wishes and usage behavior of customers.