News item | 27-02-2023 | 9:00 am
Telecom companies want to impose an extra levy on services that generate a lot of internet traffic, such as videos and streaming. The European Commission has recently launched a consultation with a plan to allow this. Practice shows that extra costs are passed on to viewers and subscribers. Dutch and European consumers will then foot the bill. The government therefore does not want telecom companies to charge twice for internet traffic in the future.
The Netherlands has previously expressed concerns with other Member States about the basis for these plans. The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy (EZK) therefore contributes to the consultation with economic research. This shows that such an ‘EU internet toll’ does not directly lead to extra investments in the construction or quality of digital infrastructure. Minister Micky Adriaansens (Economic Affairs and Climate) today has a paper and in addition the research of economic bureau Oxera published to express Dutch concerns.
The Netherlands has always argued against an internet levy and has played a leading role in the creation of EU rules that prohibit telecom providers from blocking, slowing down or charging separately for internet traffic. This so-called net neutrality is regulated in the European Open Internet Regulation of 2015.
“Telecom providers are paid twice with an extra toll. After all, a consumer chooses whether or not to stream for a fee via, for example Netflix, Spotify, via play or YouTube and also pays subscription costs to the telecom provider. Streaming services will, in part, pass on extra costs to their customers. As a result, consumers are expected to pay more. In addition, such a toll is at odds with net neutrality,” said Minister Micky Adriaansens (EZK) about the Dutch position. The minister continues: “The Netherlands has also commissioned economists to investigate whether this proposed toll will actually lead to new or additional network investments. That doesn’t seem to be the case. All things considered, the government argues that this is not the right way to realize the European digitization ambitions.”