The hearing was structured in two panels. Rapporteur Malcolm Harbour held an opening remark and gave a brief overview of the main elements of his draft Opinion on the proposed Regulation laying down measures for a European single market for electronic communications.
The first panel focused on the consumer protection provisions of the proposed Regulation and in particular on the Articles 21, 22 and 25 to 30. The panel was composed of Mr Pula Houghton (Director of consumer markets, Which?), Mr Kip Meek (Director Public Policy, EE) and Dr Margit Brandl (Global Head of Telecoms and Trade Policy, DigitalEurope). In general the speakers voiced concerns with regard to the instrument (Regulation) that had been chosen by the Commission. There were diverging views with regard to the level of detail of the information to be provided to the end-users and its usefulness, the limitation of contract lengths to maximum 24 months and the possibility for end-users to terminate a contract after 6 months.
The second panel focused on the issue of open internet and net neutrality, the Articles 23 and 24 of the proposed Regulation. Ms Nadia Trainar (Co-Chair of the Net Neutrality Expert Working Group of BEREC), Mr Jens-Henrik Jeppesen (Director European Affairs, CDT), Dr Andrea Renda (Senior Research Fellow, CEPS) and Mr Guillermo Beltrà (Senior Policy Officer, BEUC) intervened as speaker in the panel. The panellists welcomed the fact that the proposal contained provisions on net neutrality. There was a consensus that it was time for an approach at EU level. However, speakers had different views as on how traffic management should be organised, either based on general principles or on a limitative list of justifications, in order to avoid abuse and discrimination. The experts agreed that the definition of specialised services as contained in the proposal needed to be refined.
Source : © European Union, 2013 - EP