Victory for Net Neutrality in Europe
For your convenience, here&#x27;s just the text &quot;in the boxes&quot; (the Recitals), from <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;berec.europa.eu&#x2F;eng&#x2F;document_register&#x2F;subject_matter&#x2F;berec&#x2F;download&#x2F;0&#x2F;6160-berec-guidelines-on-the-implementation-b_0.pdf" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;berec.europa.eu&#x2F;eng&#x2F;document_register&#x2F;subject_matter&#x2F;...</a><p>These are the first 9, the other 10 are here: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;gist.github.com&#x2F;daveloyall&#x2F;a1112bb70412d77bebc8090906769498" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;gist.github.com&#x2F;daveloyall&#x2F;a1112bb70412d77bebc809090...</a><p>Recital 1
=========<p>This Regulation aims to establish common rules to safeguard equal and
non-discriminatory treatment of traffic in the provision of internet
access services and related end-users’ rights. It aims to protect
end-users and simultaneously to guarantee the continued functioning of
the internet ecosystem as an engine of innovation.<p>Recital 2
=========<p>The measures provided for in this Regulation respect the principle of
technological neutrality, that is to say they neither impose nor
discriminate in favour of the use of a particular type of technology.<p>Recital 3
=========<p>The internet has developed over the past decades as an open platform
for innovation with low access barriers for end-users, providers of
content, applications and services and providers of internet access
services. The existing regulatory framework aims to promote the
ability of end-users to access and distribute information or run
applications and services of their choice. However, a significant
number of end-users are affected by traffic management practices which
block or slow down specific applications or services. Those tendencies
require common rules at the Union level to ensure the openness of the
internet and to avoid fragmentation of the internal market resulting
from measures adopted by individual Member States.<p>Recital 4
=========<p>An internet access service provides access to the internet, and in
principle to all the end-points thereof, irrespective of the network
technology and terminal equipment used by end-users. However, for
reasons outside the control of providers of internet access services,
certain end points of the internet may not always be
accessible. Therefore, such providers should be deemed to have
complied with their obligations related to the provision of an
internet access service within the meaning of this Regulation when
that service provides connectivity to virtually all end points of the
internet. Providers of internet access services should therefore not
restrict connectivity to any accessible end-points of the internet.<p>Recital 5
=========<p>When accessing the internet, end-users should be free to choose
between various types of terminal equipment as defined in Commission
Directive 2008&#x2F;63&#x2F;EC (1). Providers of internet access services should
not impose restrictions on the use of terminal equipment connecting to
the network in addition to those imposed by manufacturers or
distributors of terminal equipment in accordance with Union law.<p>Recital 6
=========<p>End-users should have the right to access and distribute information
and content, and to use and provide applications and services without
discrimination, via their internet access service. The exercise of
this right should be without prejudice to Union law, or national law
that complies with Union law, regarding the lawfulness of content,
applications or services. This Regulation does not seek to regulate
the lawfulness of the content, applications or services, nor does it
seek to regulate the procedures, requirements and safeguards related
thereto. Those matters therefore remain subject to Union law, or
national law that complies with Union law.<p>Recital 7
=========<p>In order to exercise their rights to access and distribute information
and content and to use and provide applications and services of their
choice, end-users should be free to agree with providers of internet
access services on tariffs for specific data volumes and speeds of the
internet access service.  Such agreements, as well as any commercial
practices of providers of internet access services, should not limit
the exercise of those rights and thus circumvent provisions of this
Regulation safeguarding open internet access. National regulatory and
other competent authorities should be empowered to intervene against
agreements or commercial practices which, by reason of their scale,
lead to situations where end-users’ choice is materially reduced in
practice. To this end, the assessment of agreements and commercial
practices should, inter alia, take into account the respective market
positions of those providers of internet access services, and of the
providers of content, applications and services, that are
involved. National regulatory and other competent authorities should
be required, as part of their monitoring and enforcement function, to
intervene when agreements or commercial practices would result in the
undermining of the essence of the end-users’ rights.<p>Recital 8
=========<p>When providing internet access services, providers of those services
should treat all traffic equally, without discrimination, restriction
or interference, independently of its sender or receiver, content,
application or service, or terminal equipment. According to general
principles of Union law and settled case-law, comparable situations
should not be treated differently and different situations should not
be treated in the same way unless such treatment is objectively
justified.<p>Recital 9
=========<p>The objective of reasonable traffic management is to contribute to an
efficient use of network resources and to an optimisation of overall
transmission quality responding to the objectively different technical
quality of service requirements of specific categories of traffic, and
thus of the content, applications and services transmitted. Reasonable
traffic management measures applied by providers of internet access
services should be transparent, non-discriminatory and proportionate,
and should not be based on commercial considerations. The requirement
for traffic management measures to be non-discriminatory does not
preclude providers of internet access services from implementing, in
order to optimise the overall transmission quality, traffic management
measures which differentiate between objectively different categories
of traffic. Any such differentiation should, in order to optimise
overall quality and user experience, be permitted only on the basis of
objectively different technical quality of service requirements (for
example, in terms of latency, jitter, packet loss, and bandwidth) of
the specific categories of traffic, and not on the basis of commercial
considerations. Such differentiating measures should be proportionate
in relation to the purpose of overall quality optimisation and should
treat equivalent traffic equally. Such measures should not be
maintained for longer than necessary.