Receiving a hefty mobile phone bill after a trip abroad would dampen anyone’s holiday spirit. The good news is that this is set to change. The recent approval of a new telecoms package by the European Parliament means that as from June 15, 2017 a complete ban will be imposed on all roaming fees when travelling within Europe.

The European Commission has over the past years engaged in a constant battle to decrease roaming charges within Europe. In fact, prices for roaming calls, SMS and data have fallen by 80 per cent since 2007. In September 2013, the European Commission took a further step by presenting a proposal with the aim of creating a telecoms single market. Further negotiations at European Council and European Parliament level, and thanks to the recent vote of approval taken by the European Parliament, two of the objectives of this proposal have been finally achieved.

This new law now clearly states that, as from April 30, 2016, roaming surcharges must not exceed €0.05 per minute for outgoing voice calls, €0.02 for text messages (SMS), or €0.05 per megabyte of mobile internet use. Roaming fees for calling, sending text messages and using the mobile internet abroad in the EU and in EEA countries will then be totally banned as from June 15, 2017. This will mean that a call, whether from home or from another EU country, will be billed in exactly the same way. The cap on charges for incoming voice calls will also be set out shortly and is expected to be considerably lower than for outgoing calls.

The law, however, does make provision for a number of safeguards which are to be deployed by national authorities in exceptional circumstances. When mobile telephony service providers prove that because of the provision of roaming services at domestic prices they cannot recover their costs and that this will in turn signify an increase in domestic prices, they may be authorised by national authorities to impose minimal surcharges on roaming customers to recover such costs.

The law also makes provision for remedies to be utilised in order to curtail certain abuses by consumers. Examples of such abusive practices by consumers may be individuals who buy a SIM card in an EU country where domestic prices are lower in order to use it at home or customers who remain permanently abroad with a domestic subscription of their home country. In such exceptional cases, operators could be allowed to charge a small fee according to a “fair use” policy. This means that once a certain limit, still to be defined by the European Commission, has been exceeded by the consumer, a small basic fee can be charged. This fee must be much lower than maximum prices that operators currently charge consumers for roaming in the EU.

Another welcome outcome of this new law is the fact that internet service providers will, as from April 30, 2016, be obliged to treat all internet traffic equally.

This means that such companies are no longer allowed to block or slow the delivery of content, applications or services from selected senders or to selected receivers. Paid prioritisation will no longer be allowed and the cardinal rule is that every European citizen must enjoy free and open access to the internet. The only exceptions acknowledged by the law are those related to strict and clearly identified public-interest exceptions, such as network security or combating child pornography as well as those related to the prevention of temporary or exceptional network congestion. A provider whose network is continuously or repeatedly congested cannot, however, invoke this exception but has to invest in capacity extension. Internet service providers must also put in place their own mechanism to address consumer complaints relating to rights and obligations on net neutrality.

The law does not exclude the use of reasonable traffic management to optimise overall transmission quality. Such use must however be based on objectively different technical quality requirements and not on commercial considerations, and it must furthermore be transparent, non-discriminatory and proportionate.

Similarly, this new law does not prohibit service providers from offering specialised services such as the improved internet quality needed for certain services, such as internet TV and new innovative applications. However, they can do this, only on condition that the offer of such services does not have an impact on general internet quality. These innovative services may only be offered where and if sufficient capacity for internet access remains available.

Internet providers will also be obliged to give consumers who are interested in entering into a fixed or mobile internet contract a clear explanation of what download and upload speeds, when compared to the advertised speed, they can usually expect. Any significant discrepancy that is continuous or occurs regularly will trigger a right to remedies for the consumer. The latter would be entitled to terminate the contract or to obtain compensation from the service provider. The national regulatory authorities will be responsible for verifying whether the difference in speed is a breach of contract or not.

The implementation of this new law will surely signify huge gains for consumers. However, operators must not view this law as all doom and gloom since the end of roaming charges could very well signify an increase in the uptake of mobile telephony by consumers who are now assured that they will be charged the same price wherever they use their mobile phone in Europe.

mariosa@vellacardona.com

Mariosa Vella Cardona is a freelance legal consultant specialising in European law, competition law, consumer law and intellectual property law.

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