The proposed regulations on net neutrality in Europe may seem to look similar to the ones that are existing in the U.S., but a closer look reveals that the new rules have a number of loopholes that shouldn't be ignored.
The European Union prepares to vote on the proposed Internet rules, the result of which would determine how people in Europe will access the Web. While both the EU and the U.S. share similar rules that include a ban on "paid prioritization," anti-blocking or throttling traffic by the Internet service providers, and zero-rating support, the EU proposal received heavy criticism from advocates, tech companies and even the WWW inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee.
The critics believe that, contrary to what EU claims that the new rules will protect net neutrality, these rules will in fact do the exact opposite.
Barbara van Schewick, a law professor at Stanford and the Director of the Stanford Center for Internet and Society, has come up with a written analysis of the new rules which bears the title "Europe Is About to Adopt Bad Net Neutrality Rules. Here's How To Fix Them."
Berlin-based VC Ciaran O'Leary echoes the same sentiments and has joined the anti-EU proposal campaign.
"The EU is about to adopt net neutrality rules that could put European startups and SMEs at a significant disadvantage to their U.S. peers," said O'Leary. "To make matters worse – the EU has been claiming that the proposed rules on net neutrality are more pro net-neutrality than in the U.S. (where net neutrality rules are strong; but not without the U.S. tech community rallying the troops) – this is simply untrue; but has led to a situation where already this Tuesday (27th) the EU could sleep walk in to approving potentially detrimental net neutrality rules."
O'Leary gave a rundown on the key problems that were brought by the EU proposal.
First, it allows fast lanes to be created for companies so long as they pay under the proposal's "specialized services exception."
Second, it allows harmful discrimination against content by way of zero-rating.
Third, it distorts competition through class-based discrimination.
Lastly, ISPs can slow down traffic anytime they wish, whether there is actual or an impending congestion.
In June, members of the European Telecommunications Network Operators' Association (ETNO) sent out a letter to the European Council.
"Leading investors have identified regulation as the single most important driver of the sector, underlining that – compared to other areas of the world – the EU is the region facing the harshest regulation. For this reason, we ask for urgent reforms to remove regulatory barriers to more investment in digital infrastructure," wrote the members of ETNO.
The outcome of the vote in Europe has been of major concern to advocates of net neutrality not just in the U.S. but also on a global scale. After all, the Internet is a network of networks which means that whatever the Internet in Europe would look like, it will eventually affect how the Internet is used worldwide.
