The European Commission has surprisingly taken up a proposal from the telecommunications industry that, in the opinion of the German Consumer Organization (vzbv), represents a danger to the open and free Internet: the sending party pays model. Accordingly, the telecommunications industry is demanding that content providers such as streaming services, Amazon and Google be obliged to pay a fee to the telecommunications providers for the use of the digital infrastructure. This fee would endanger the rules of net neutrality and free competition. The European Commission could present a draft as early as autumn 2022.
“We are critical of a fee for using the Internet that must be charged by telecommunications providers and paid by content providers. It would damage the existing economy and autonomy of the Internet,” says Susanne Blohm, consultant in the Digital and Media team. “The negative consequences for competition, network neutrality and consumer interests outweigh the profit intentions of the telecommunications industry,” says Blohm.
Negative effects on market structure and network neutrality
Since 2016, telecommunications providers in Europe have been obliged to treat all data traffic on the Internet equally in the spirit of network neutrality. In addition, data packets are forwarded independently, as quickly as possible and within the limits of available resources according to the best-effort principle.
If the telecommunications industry now charges streaming services and other content providers a network fee for this data traffic, the data would no longer be treated equally. The rules of net neutrality could be indirectly undermined.
User fees in South Korea illustrate negative consequences
A look at South Korea shows what consequences internet usage fees can have - the only country in the world to have introduced such network fees. Since its introduction, it has been observed that content providers are withdrawing from the market, the choice for consumers is becoming smaller and the streaming quality has been limited in some cases.
vzbv calls for public consultation
There was already a similar debate in 2012 about a possible network fee at the expense of content providers. At that time, the European Commission and the Board of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC), among others, clearly spoke out against this proposal. This was also justified by the fact that the proposal would increase the risk of monopolies.
The vzbv demands that the European Commission initiate a public consultation on the current proposals. All affected groups such as civil society, business and consumer associations must be given the opportunity to comment. Before publishing a concrete legislative proposal, the European Commission should also wait for BEREC's current final report on the topic.
Download: vzbv position paper network charges sending party pays model. Endangering the open and free Internet. First positioning for the possible introduction of the sending party pays model | August 2022
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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )

