Barbara van Schewick's blog

The European Commission is evaluating a proposal by Europe’s largest telecoms to force websites and apps to pay broadband companies like Telefonica, Orange, and Deutsche Telekom. This dangerous proposal would require companies like Twitch, YouTube, Netflix and more to pay every broadband provider in Europe, ostensibly to help fund the build out of faster networks in the EU. Read more about Yes, Telefonica, Forcing Apps to Pay ISPs Violates Net Neutrality

On Tuesday, the European Parliament Read more about When the Media Gets It Wrong: The EU Parliament Actually Said No to Forcing Websites to Pay ISPs

On Tuesday, June 13, the European Parliament Read more about Europe’s biggest telecoms are trying to trick the European Parliament into endorsing their proposal to force websites to pay them without proper evaluation and debate. MEPs shouldn’t let them.

In a frontal assault on net neutrality, the European Commission wants to force websites and apps to pay fees to broadband companies like Telefonica, Orange and Deutsche Telekom, and it just closed its call for comments on the proposal.

Network fees like this have never existed in the EU. They violate the EU's net neutrality law, and, if put in place, would be a radical departure from how the internet has operated and flourished over the last 30 years.  Read more about Here’s How the European Commission Proposal to Force Websites to Pay ISPs Violates Net Neutrality

The European Commission is evaluating a proposal by the largest telecoms in Europe to force websites and apps to pay broadband companies like Telefonica, Orange, and Deutsche Telekom. This dangerous proposal would require companies like Twitch, YouTube, Netflix and more to negotiate with and pay every broadband provider in Europe. Read more about European Commission proposal to force websites to pay ISPs violates net neutrality, harms Europeans, and solves no problems: Prof. Barbara van Schewick Filing

On Wednesday, European top telecom regulator BEREC, which consists of the national telecom regulators from across the EU, published its revised net neutrality guidelines. The guidelines now prohibit broadband providers’ zero-rating offers that benefit select apps or categories of apps, whether they do so for free or require apps to pay to be included.  Read more about European Regulators Just Stopped Facebook, Google and Big Telecoms’ Net Neutrality Violations

The E.U.’s top telecom regulator BEREC is set to issue new net neutrality rules, after the European Court of Justice found that discriminatory zero-rating plans such as T-Mobile’s StreamOn and Vodafone’s Pass violate Europe’s net neutrality law. Read more about Facebook, Google & Big Telecoms Want to Keep Violating Net Neutrality in Europe. Regulators Should Stop Them.

On Wednesday May 4 2020, the cable, phone, and wireless companies suing California over its historic net neutrality law withdrew their lawsuit after three consecutive losses in federal courts in California. Read more about ISPs Drop Legal Fight Against California Net Neutrality Law

On Wednesday, Politico reported on a leaked email from the Department of Veterans Affairs, expressing concern that California’s net neutrality law could force some wireless providers to end a program that exempted the V.A.’s telehealth app from their customers’ data caps.

Veterans across the country and in California shouldn’t have to worry they’ll go over their data caps by talking to their doctor or mental health provider online. In fact, no American or Californian should.

But California’s net neutrality law is not the problem here. Read more about Setting the Record Straight: Carriers Can Help Veterans and Comply with California’s Net Neutrality Law

Today, AT&T Wireless announced it will be suspending its Sponsored Data program nationwide. Under this program, AT&T Wireless exempts AT&T’s video services like DirectTV Now from the data caps of its wireless Internet customers who subscribe to those services.  Read more about In a Win for the Open Internet, AT&T Stops Zero-Rating its Own Video

On Tuesday, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling on the challenge to the FCC’s 2017 net neutrality repeal. The ruling barely upheld the repeal, but sent it back to the FCC for failure to deal with public safety and for deficiencies related to Lifeline subsidies and access to utility poles by broadband-only providers.
Crucially, the court ruled that the FCC’s abdication of oversight over broadband providers left it with no power to prevent states from providing their own net neutrality protections. Read more about Court Decision Clears Way for State Net Neutrality Laws

The following is the executive summary of an analysis I wrote looking at two bills in the House, both of which purport to restore the net neutrality protections in the 2015 Open Internet Order. Only one actually does so. The full six-page analysis can be downloaded here. (.pdf) Read more about Restoring Net Neutrality Protections: An Analysis of H.R. 1096 vs. H.R. 1644

On Sunday, Governor Jerry Brown signed into law Senator Scott Wiener’s SB 822, the first state-level law that comprehensively restores all of the net neutrality protections of the 2015 Open Internet Order. Read more about Gov. Jerry Brown Signs SB 822, Restoring Net Neutrality to California