The consumer advice centers have warned of a possible increase in the price of streaming services and other online content offerings. The background to this are plans by the EU Commission for market participants to share in the costs of the digital infrastructure.
Too expensive for some services
“We were surprised that the EU Commission announced that it wanted to take up the topic,” said the head of the Federal Association (vzbv), Ramona Pop, of the German Press Agency. She reminded that it was already an older proposal from the telecommunications providers to demand some kind of Internet toll. “In addition to the costs that you have as an end consumer, content providers such as Netflix and Amazon should now also pay,” said Pop.
“This completely challenges net neutrality,” Pop warned. “And it would certainly make offers more expensive.” In their opinion, some offers would disappear completely from the market because they could no longer hold up.
The EU Commission had announced concrete plans for all market participants to share in the infrastructure costs for networks.
If you have problems playing the video, please enable JavaScript
Pop said: “We expect that the EU Commission will quickly hold a public hearing so that you can start a discussion with everyone involved in advance.” Pop rejected the existing proposals as potentially anti-competitive.
(mho)
