LQDN proposal for amendments on Single Market Regulation

This page presents La Quadrature du Net proposed amendments to the EU Commission's flawed proposal for a Telecom Single Market Regulation. These amendments aim for a meangingful protection for Net Neutrality through this text, to promote fundamental rights, innovation, competition, and a better recognition for citizen-owned Internet infrastructure (through spectrum policy in particular).

The European Commission's text is currently being debated at the EU Parliament. To learn more and participate in protecting Net Neutrality:
 * Visit savetheinternet.eu to take part in the EU-wide campaign in favour of Net Neutrality and freedom online.
 * Check La Quadrature's special dossier on Net neutrality.

=Net neutrality=

Background on Net Neutrality
The role the Internet plays in our society nowadays has completely changed the way certain rights and freedoms must be guaranteed. This is clearly the case for freedom of expression and information which the European law protects via Article 11 of the European Charter of Fundamental Rights. The democratisation of the right to free expression is one of the most important and revolutionary achievements of the Internet. Today, thanks to the Internet architecture, citizens’ voices can be heard and expressed in a much more effective and widespread manner; the free flow of knowledge is thereby a matter of course.

Furthermore, the rise of the Internet has revolutionized the nature of communication. Contrary to older traditional means, such as radio or television, the Internet promotes a completely free way of communicating and interacting between two or more persons or entities.

However nothing should be taken for granted. The business model advocated by the providers of broadband services risks to seriously harm the open nature and structure of the Internet.

The Telecom Single Market Regulation put forward by the EU Commission, though flawed, is a unique opportunity for Europe to set milestones for the future. For this reason, it is essential to correct some dangerous provisions introduced in the proposal of the European Commission and introduce appropriate safeguards. La Quadrature du Net urges the European Parliament to amend the text as follows.

Specialised services
There are essentially two kinds of services that can be provided: Internet access services and "specialized services". Whilst the first provides connectivity to the public on the basis of the best effort principle, the second should be operated within a closed network in order to not impair the quality of the best effort Internet. The Commission's proposal does not stress that separation sufficiently. Instead, the current proposal enables a situation in which the needs of specialised services can lead to an impairment in the quality of internet access services.

Traffic management measures and contractually agreed limits
The Net neutrality principle could be infringed by telecom players under the pretext of ensuring a high quality of service. This would lead to the application of traffic management measures or contractually agreed limits resulting in unacceptable priorisation of certain data flows. For this reason it is highly necessary to clearly define those the scenarios in which a traffic management measure is acceptable and specify that commercial agreements cannot, under any circumstances, jeopardize end-users' freedoms.

Enforcement of the Net neutrality principle
In order to efficiently guarantee digital rights and freedoms of the European citizens, it is mandatory to endow National Regulatory Authorities with legal powers, geared to enforce the Net Neutrality principle.

Amendment 21
=Spectrum=

To date, the access to the radio spectrum is subject to a heavy state regulation; unluckily, it has been proved that the exclusive allocation of the airwaves actually turns into an underutilization of the spectrum. This scenario could have severe repercussions on the innovative and democratical potential, introduced by Internet. For this reasons, we propose measures geared to highlight the importance of shared and unlicensed use of spectrum, with a special focus on the benefits for not-for-profit sector and small and medium-sized enterprises.

Amendment 10
=Data Protection=

The proposal of the European Commission does not avoid intrusive communications inspection techniques, especially in the framework of the implementation of traffic management measures. For this reason, it is necessary to introduce provisions reinforcing end-users' rights to the protection of their personal data.

Amendment 22
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1: The expression “application-agnostic”refers to Internet traffic management practices, measures and techniques that do not depend on the characteristics of specific applications, content, service, devices and uses. 2: In Europe the radio spectrum rate is indeed estimated to be under 10% 3: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=TA&language=EN&reference=P6-TA-2008-0451 4: See a non-exhaustive list of such organizations: http://www.laquadrature.net/wiki/Community_Wireless_Networks_in_Europe