THE COURT OF JUSTICE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION HAS RULED ON THE OPENNESS OF THE INTERNET

#01The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled on the openness of the Internet

In its judgement of 15 September 2020 (Joined Cases C-807/18 and C-39/19 Telenor Magyarország Zrt./Nemzeti Média-és Hírközlési Hatóság Elnöke), the Court of Justice first interpreter Regulation 2015/2120, which lays down the basic principle of openness of the Internet (commonly referred to as „net neutrality”).

According to the Court of Justice, the non-inclusion of data consumed by individual applications in the total consumption of customer data within the offer of so-called „zero tariffs” of services by internet access providers conflicts with the requirements for open internet access.

This company offers its customers two packages that work based on the so-called Zero tariffs, where data traffic generated by certain applications and services were not included in the total consumption of customer data.

The Court stated that the use of a „zero tariff” and other measures blocking or slowing down website traffic may restrict end-users in exercising their rights to free access to information of their choice, as it makes it difficult, if not completely excluded, to access certain applications and services, to which the „zero tariffs” is not applied. Users should only make decisions based on the quality of the content on each website and technological sophistication.