Statement of the Executive Board Chairman and of the Director General of ETNO on intra-EU calls
Date
04 Jun 2018
Sections
InfoSociety
"Intra-EU calls regulation is unjustified and has no legal grounds”Brussels, 4 June 2018: “The companies we represent are the main investors in Europe’s digital networks and services, with 70% of the sector investment. At present, our engineers and service developers are busy working on the historic transition to fibre networks and on ensuring a timely launch of 5G.
Our strategic focus is on providing European citizens with the new standard of communications and on securing essential factors of competitiveness for the economy of the Continent.
Any intrusive measure on price regulation of intra-EU Calls would not only send a very negative signal to investors, but also set an alarming precedent undermining due process and the rule of law based on short-sighted and subjective opinions.
Regulation of intra-EU calls, as stated several times by both the European Commission and by BEREC, is not grounded in economic analysis and lacks any impact assessment. It would therefore be unacceptable and lack legal foundations.
Intra-EU calls markets are deemed competitive by the authorities, consumers are already adopting a range of free alternatives and competitive packages. What is more, a variety of providers of international calling offers would see their market disappear.
In this context, we believe that intra-EU calls regulation would imply an excessively high cost to the society in terms of lower investment, which would not be compensated by any significant consumer gain.
We therefore call on legislators to refrain from retail price regulation of intra-EU calls and focus on the shared political and strategic objective of providing Europeans with increased 5G and fibre investment.
We believe that allowing any retail prices intervention on intra EU calls would not only contradict key practices foreseen by the Better Regulation approach, but also result into a breach of EU laws by ignoring the fundamental principles of proportionality and subsidiarity in the EU Treaty.”
ENDS
Phillip Malloch, Executive Board Chairman, ETNO
Lise Fuhr, Director General, ETNO