Ofcom today fined EE (trading as 4GEE, Orange and T-Mobile) £1m for failing to comply with Ofcom’s rules on handling customer complaints. The investigation is part of the communications regulator own-initiative monitoring and enforcement programme on complaints handling pursuant to General Condition 14 . Ofcom’s investigation over EE found that, over the period investigated – from…
From 1 July 2015, calls to Freephone numbers, starting with 0800 or 0808, will be free to call from mobile phones as well as landlines. The changes introduced by Ofcom are part of an initiative named UK calling, which also envisages to clarify charges for consumers making calls to service numbers – starting 084, 087,…
Following the European Commission’s proposal for a telecoms single market in September 2013, the European Parliament, Council and Commission have finally reached an agreement on rules for safeguarding the open Internet in the EU – a principle known as net neutrality. Net neutrality is a principle that internet traffic should be treated without discrimination. This…
As a result of the development of the Telecoms Single Market package, European Parliament and the European Commission have agreed that the roaming charges in Europe will be abolished from 15 June 2017. In the meantime as from 30 April 2016 roaming charges will drop substantially, as they will be subject to a cap of…
Since 20 June 2015 (the “Harmonisation Date“), General Condition 22 (Service Migrations and Home-Moves) (the “GC 22“) has been fully implemented. GC 22 came into force last year but its full application in respect of broadband services (and its harmonised application to fixed telecom and broadband services) was delayed until the Harmonisation Date. From…
According to Politico, after further drawbacks experienced by the draft legislative package in the third informal trilogue, on June 12 a breakfast meeting with EU telecoms ministers was held in order to overcome the impasse in roaming charges and open Internet access matters. From discussion held earlier in June, it seemed clear that the Council of…
An important judgment on the interpretation of distribution rights was handed down on 13 May 2015 by the Court of Justice of the European Union. The judgment ruled that copyright owners could prevent an unauthorised trader to offer for sale or address a targeted advertisement of the original or a copy of a protected work, even if it is…
The Digital Single Market Strategy was published on 6 May 2015 together with a voluminous document of evidence and analysis. The strategy aims at realizing the opportunities offered by digital technologies, which know no borders, as President’s Jean-Claude Juncker put it in the Political Guidelines. The strategy is already raising concerns and praise but all in all has…
The Digital Single Market has been positioned in the top ten priorities of the EU Commission, where Commissioner Ansip has been appointed to take the lead to deliver together with his team a proposal for a Digital Single Market (DSM) Strategy. The DSM strategy would be unveiled today so there will be more to come.…
Whether a broader public interest test should apply to merger control has recently been discussed by Alex Chisholm, CEO of the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority, after being raised at Prime Minister’s questions during Pfizer’s attempt to acquire Astra Zeneca. Similar issues also arose this year in France regarding General Electric’s bid for Alstom. They…
