France’s telecom regulator has the power to gather...
France’s telecom regulator has the power to gather information on interconnection and data-routing markets even from players outside the EU, said the country’s highest administrative court Wednesday (in French: http://xrl.us/bpfkbp). The Autorité de régulation des communications électroniques et des postes…
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(ARCEP) has been collecting the information as part of its approach to dealing with net neutrality, it said. The interconnection and data-routing markets are “home to complex and potentially strained relationships” between ISPs, providers of public online communication services (PPOCS) and technical intermediaries such as transit operators and content delivery networks, it said. ARCEP’s twice-yearly information-gathering campaigns were challenged by U.S. carriers AT&T and Verizon and their French subsidiaries. But ARCEP said the surveys are vital to its ability to ensure that the markets run smoothly from the technical and economic perspective, particularly when it might have to settle possible disputes between ISPs and PPOCSs. The ruling confirms ARCEP’s power to query all market undertakings, including those outside the EU, that have business and/or activity that could significantly affect Internet users in France, the regulator said.