Brussels, BELGIUM – As Europe’s largest telecom operators gather in Brussels today, the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA Europe) has launched a new policy explainer revealing how the European Commission’s proposed Digital Networks Act (DNA) creates two legal pathways for mandatory ‘network fees’.
The explainer, Beyond Speculation: How the DNA Codifies Pathways Towards Network Fees, warns that the threat is no longer theoretical: mechanisms that could introduce network fees are already written into the text being negotiated by EU co-legislators.
Yet after years of publicly demanding ‘fair share’ payments from popular online services, network fees have disappeared from the agenda of the telecom industry’s flagship event. The telecom lobby has gone quiet in recent months, just as the European Parliament considers DNA amendments that would turn the Commission’s ‘voluntary’ mechanism into mandatory dispute resolution, harming connectivity in Europe.
Big telecom’s tactical silence is no coincidence. Renewing the politically contentious ‘fair share’ debate – or declaring victory too soon – could jeopardise amendments now under consideration in Parliament that closely reflect telecom CEOs’ long-standing demands.
Outside Brussels, however, the industry remains more upfront. Speaking in South Korea last week, Connect Europe’s Director General said the DNA’s voluntary approach was insufficient: “Voluntary provisions do not address imbalances in bargaining power,” and called for “mandatory negotiation obligations” – which CCIA Europe warns would end net neutrality.
To protect the open internet, EU lawmakers should shut down every route to mandatory traffic payments. That means excluding cloud services, private networks, and CDNs from Article 9.2 of the DNA, avoiding overlap with existing EU rules, and deleting Articles 191-193 to prevent the conciliation mechanism from becoming a backdoor to network fees.
The following can be attributed to CCIA Europe’s Senior Policy Manager, Maria Teresa Stecher:
“The risks posed by network fees are no longer hypothetical. They are written directly into the legal text currently being negotiated in Brussels.”
“As Parliament considers amendments, lawmakers must scrutinise the legal backdoors already in the DNA and reject any attempts to make them even stronger. Otherwise, network fees risk becoming embedded in Europe’s telecom rulebook at the expense of net neutrality.”
The following can be attributed to Daniel Friedlaender, Senior Vice President and Head of CCIA Europe:
“Big telcos may be strategically silent about network fees at today’s flagship event, but behind closed doors their leadership continues to demand a mandatory payment regime, regardless of the consequences for the open internet.”
Notes for editors
The full CCIA Europe explainer, Beyond Speculation: How the DNA Codifies Pathways Towards Network Fees, is available to download here: https://ccianet.org/library/beyond-speculation-how-the-digital-networks-act-dna-codifies-pathways-towards-network-fees-ccia-europe-explainer/
