BEREC Opinion on Phase II investigation pursuant to Article 7a Case DE/2015/1816

On 18 November 2015, the European Commission registered a notification from the German national regulatory authority, Bundesnetzagentur (BNetzA), concerning the markets for wholesale call termination on individual public telephone networks provided at the fixed location in Germany (corresponding to Market 1 in Commission Recommendation 2014/710/EU of 9 October 2014).

Since the current notification is closely related to previous notifications concerning the market for call termination on individual public telephone networks provided at a fixed location in Germany, it has to be reiterated that, on all six previous occasions, 6 March 2013, 21 May 2013, 11 August 2014, 7 October 2014, 17 December 2014, and 18 March 2015[1], the Commission expressed its serious doubts on the compatibility of the respective proposals with EU law and stated that the draft measures, if adopted, may create barriers to the internal market.

In that respect, as required by Article 3(1)(a) of the BEREC Regulation (Regulation (EC) № 1211/2009) and in relation with Article 7a of the Framework Directive, on 27 January 2016 BEREC adopted the current opinion in relation to phase II investigation pursuant to Article 7a of Directive 2002/21/EC as amended by Directive 2009/140/EC: DE/2016/1816, “Wholesale call termination on individual public telephone networks provided at a fixed location in Germany”.