European Commission put under pressure by Parliament to regulate on net neutrality

More information has been demanded about regulating ISPs

The Industry Committee of the European Parliament has unanimously adopted a resolution on net neutrality that will place pressure on the European Commission to regulate ISPs to treat internet traffic equally.

A non-legislative text has been directed to the commission and can be seen as the European Parliament taking a political stance on the controversial topic.

Net neutrality, which would see every internet packet treated equally, has been a widely debated topic among regulators and ISPs.

ISPs object to being forced to adopt specific traffic management techniques, as it is thought they currently manage their traffic to make best use of available bandwidth, and alternative traffic management requirements might mean they have to spend more money on infrastructure.

The resolution calls on the commission to "guard that ISPs do not block, discriminate against, impair or degrade the ability of any person to use a service to access, use, send, post, receive or offer any content application or service of their choice, irrespective of source or target".

It also asks the commission to provide the European Parliament with information on current traffic management practices used by ISPs.

Most importantly, however, it requests that the commission reports back within six months of an investigation being carried out by a Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) - due to complete by the end of 2011 - as to whether further regulation on net neutrality is needed.

The BEREC investigation is assessing ISP traffic management practices in Europe.

"[The European Commission must] ensure the consistent application and enforcement of the existing EU regulatory framework for communications and to assess within six months after the publication of the findings of BEREC's investigation whether further regulatory measures are needed in order to ensure freedom of expression, freedom of access to information, freedom of choice for consumers and media pluralism," reads the text.

"[It should also ensure] effective competition and innovation and facilitate wide-ranging benefits for citizens, business and public administration uses of the internet."

Jeremie Zimmermann, co-founder of La Quadrature du Net, an influential lobby group that framed parts of the text that has been issued to the commission, argues that although the wording of the text is weak, it will place pressure where it is needed.

"It is a bit tame, as it simply asks the EC to assess the need for regulation, but given that the BEREC investigation is ongoing, I don't think that there is much more the parliament could have done," said Zimmermann.

"What is important is that it adds pressure to Neelie Kroes and her ‘wait and see' approach," he added.

Kroes, the Digital Agenda commissioner for Europe, has taken a public stance that member states need to hold off on regulating net neutrality, as this will stifle ISPs from developing innovative offers for internet users.

"Kroes has been siding more and more with the ISPs, which is disturbing, but at least now she is under pressure to present something back to parliament," said Zimmermann.

Kroes' office has commented on the announcement by saying that the resolution is welcome and is in line with what the European Commission has been doing up until this point.

"The commission is monitoring the development of traffic management. To this end it has tasked BEREC to carry out investigations on net neutrality and traffic management, including instances of blocking and throttling. This work is currently ongoing," said a spokesperson for Kroes.

"The commission noted in its communication on net neutrality that if significant and persistent problems are substantiated, the commission will assess the need for more stringent measures to achieve competition and the choice consumers deserve," he added.

"Overall, the commission welcomes the importance that the European Parliament attaches to net neutrality, which is at the heart of the Digital Agenda objectives."