 Why keeping Regulation (EU) 2015/2120 intact is essential for innovation, competition, and citizens’ rights.
Imagine it’s the year 2030, and you wake up in your mid-sized European city to the soft hum of your smart home devices. You pour a cup of coffee, check your emails, and fire up your favorite AI-driven personal assistant to organize your day. But something feels off. The video call for your remote job keeps freezing, with faces pixelating and voices lagging, while your employer’s preferred platform is suddenly forced into a slow lane by your internet provider unless they pay an exorbitant premium. You try to access a new AI-driven learning app that promised personalized lessons, only to watch it stall endlessly. Streaming your favorite shows, which used to be effortless, now requires an upgraded service plan, while alternative platforms crawl along at glacial speeds. You glance at your router, lights blinking in frustration, realizing that your options are limited; the local market is dominated by three giant telecom companies that dictate what you can and cannot access with ease. The vibrant, free-flowing digital landscape that once felt boundless now feels constrained, a maze controlled by invisible gatekeepers whose decisions shape your every click, view and download. This unsettling scenario illustrates what could happen if Europe were to repeal its Open Internet Regulationas part of its telecoms regulation reform. Regulation (EU) 2015/2120 guarantees end-users the right to access and distribute lawful content and use applications and services of their choice without discrimination by internet service providers (ISPs). It ensures that traffic is treated equally, prohibiting blocking or throttling except in narrowly defined circumstances. This regulation is a cornerstone of Europe’s digital ecosystem, safeguarding freedom of expression, innovation, competition and, significantly, consumer protection. The importance of the Open Internet Regulationcannot be overstated. It ensures that the internet remains a medium for free expression and access to information. Without these protections, ISPs could engage in opaque traffic-management practices, favoring certain content while throttling others, effectively deciding which voices and services succeed. Technically, this would involve deep packet inspection (DPI), a network technique that examines the content of data packets as they pass through the network, enabling ISPs to discriminate based on type, source, or destination of traffic. DPI could allow providers to throttle streaming platforms they do not own or prioritize specific corporate services, fundamentally altering the architecture of the internet from a neutral medium to a controlled pipeline. This principle of equality is crucial not only for individual users but also for start-ups and small companies. In a landscape dominated by large incumbents, the regulation levels the playing field, allowing innovative services to emerge and compete on merit rather than financial leverage or pre-existing network deals. Telecom companies have already shown a willingness to circumvent the spirit of the open internet regulation. In Germany, Deutsche Telekom’s “StreamOn” mobile tariff was ruled by the Bundesnetzagentur to be incompatible with EU net neutrality rules. The zero-rating plan exempted certain streaming services from data caps, giving them preferential treatment and disadvantaging competitors. The European Court of Justice confirmed that such tariffs violated the principle of equal treatment of traffic, leading to regulatory orders to phase them out by 2023. More recently, Deutsche Telekom has been accused of creating artificial bottlenecks at network entry points, effectively demanding content providers pay for “unrestricted access” to its customers, a de facto fast-lane arrangement. Meta Platforms even ended its direct peering relationship with DT in 2024 after alleging that the telco’s practices were putting subscribers behind a paywall for certain services. Telefónica in Spain has faced similar scrutiny for zero-rating and preferential service arrangements that favor their own content platforms over independent providers. These real-world cases demonstrate that, even with regulation, telcos are actively seeking ways to tilt the playing field in their favour. Imagine, then, if these companies were granted their wish and the Open Internet Regulationwas completely repealed. The landscape would likely become a patchwork of fast lanes and slow lanes dictated entirely by commercial deals, with start-ups and independent innovators systematically disadvantaged. Users would have fewer choices, higher costs, and more exposure to throttled or blocked content. Emerging technologies like AI, edge computing, and real-time IoT applications would face unpredictable performance and barriers to entry, slowing innovation across the continent. The scenario would mirror a dystopian vision of dependence on telecom giants—but on a far larger and more systemic scale. Europe’s digital ecosystem would be dominated by a handful of entrenched incumbents, eroding the principles of fairness, openness, and democratic access. The Open Internet Regulationunderpins the European digital single market, harmonizing rules across member states and preventing fragmentation. This harmonization ensures that companies can operate across borders without navigating a patchwork of national regulations, fostering a more competitive and innovative environment. The “best-effort” nature of the internet, which has historically allowed countless innovators to build applications without needing permission from network providers, is preserved through this regulation. Yet, the regulation faces pressure from telecom operators who argue that rising traffic volumes, driven by video streaming, cloud gaming, IoT, and AI workloads, necessitate a relaxation of rules. They claim that allowing paid prioritization and special treatment for certain services would incentivize investment and network expansion. While network investment is indeed crucial, weakening the fundamental principles of the open internet is not the solution. Regulatory stability is essential for long-term innovation and market confidence. The European Commission has noted that the current rules remain effective in protecting end-users’ rights and promoting open access to the internet. Even within the EU, there is no unified support for reopening the rules. According to reports, several Member States have expressed reservations about the European Commission’s plan to “reset” telecoms regulation as part of its upcoming Digital Networks Act. National governments fear that the proposed overhaul could weaken competition safeguards embedded in the current framework, notably those derived from Regulation (EU) 2015/2120, and shift excessive power toward large network operators. These countries argue that loosening market obligations or allowing greater industry consolidation would not guarantee higher investment but could instead erode consumer choice and slow broadband deployment in smaller markets. Their stance underscores a broader concern: rather than reforming Europe’s telecom framework to accommodate the demands of dominant incumbents, the EU should preserve the open, competitive environment that has fueled innovation and connectivity over the past decade. Reopening or diluting the regulation would risk creeping discrimination. Even limited carve-outs for specialized services could evolve into broader exceptions, allowing ISPs to act as gatekeepers, prioritizing content based on commercial arrangements rather than technical necessity. This could manifest in technical scenarios such as quality of service (QoS) throttling, where packet scheduling algorithms are manipulated to favor certain traffic flows while constraining others. Such practices directly disadvantage smaller providers and start-ups, as their traffic could be systematically delayed, leading to latency-sensitive applications, like real-time AI-driven analytics or remote surgery platforms, performing unreliably. This would undermine competition, stifle innovation, and erode consumer choice. The telecom lobby’s push for flexibility often conflates traffic management with investment needs, but these arguments overlook the broader societal and economic value of an open internet. Europe’s digital infrastructure must prioritise user rights and equitable access, resisting pressures that could lead to a tiered, unequal internet. The debate over traffic growth and new technologies often misses the core point. While it is true that traffic is increasing and new technologies such as 5G, full-fiber networks, edge computing, and AI services are emerging, these trends do not justify compromising the principle of equal treatment. Traffic growth has always been part of the internet’s evolution, and the regulation already allows for reasonable traffic management for objectively justified technical reasons. Advanced network management techniques, such as traffic shaping or congestion management, can be employed without discriminating among services, maintaining optimal network performance while preserving neutrality. New technologies benefit from an open internet precisely because it ensures that the network layer remains neutral and decoupled from the application layer. AI-driven services, cloud platforms, and innovative applications can develop without negotiating special deals with ISPs or facing barriers imposed by preferential treatment for established players. For example, machine learning models that require high-volume real-time data transfers, such as autonomous vehicle coordination systems or federated learning applications, rely on consistent and predictable network access. Any preferential throttling could compromise performance, safety, and fairness. The regulation thus indirectly fosters innovation by maintaining a level playing field where small and large companies alike can compete. Specialized services with specific quality requirements, such as telemedicine or autonomous driving support, are already accommodated under the regulation without affecting general internet access. This demonstrates that flexibility and openness are not mutually exclusive. Focusing solely on traffic figures distracts from the structural importance of the regulation. The critical question is not how much data flows through networks, but who controls access to that data and whether any actor can distort competition. Weakening the regulation would shift the focus from building more capacity to determining who can pay for faster access, granting undue advantage to telecom incumbents and large content providers. Such a shift would have long-term consequences for innovation and user choice, especially as new technologies like AI, IoT, and cloud services increasingly form the backbone of the economy. Europe should stop treating the Open Internet Regulation as relic of the past and start recognising it as the foundation of digital resilience and competitiveness. Rather than reopening or rewriting it, policymakers should focus on:
If Europe holds this line, it can lead globally in establishing a rights-based model of connectivity—a model that balances innovation with fairness, user empowerment with competition, and economic growth with democratic values. The best way to end this debate is to reaffirm that an open, neutral internet is not negotiable—it’s Europe’s greatest digital asset. Comments are closed.
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