Aetha prepared a report for the European Commission in collaboration with DotEcon and Oswell&Vahida on the practice of zero-rating within the framework of net neutrality and competition and the relationship with internet service and content providers.
The European Commission commissioned a report to assess the impact on competition in mobile and fixed markets and net neutrality laws. We performed a review of the zero-rating situation in the USA as well as the ‘Europe 37’ countries.
We recommended that sector-specific regulation was needed to deal with net neutrality, which is a complex topic with many pros and cons. However, we identified no significant concerns about the competition impact of zero rating.
The European Commission opted not to heavily regulate zero-rated offers, instead using its existing net neutrality framework to regulate such practices by ISPs.
