BEREC draft Report for public consultation "Differentiation practices and related competition issues in the scope of Net Neutrality"

Stakeholders have referred to identification and economic assessment of traffic management rules as a major issue regarding net neutrality. in that respect the BEREC draft Report on differentiation practices and related competition issues in the scope of Net Neutralityhas the objetive to indertake an economic analysis of the potential effects of differentiation practices in the context of net neutrality and to assess the impact on market conditions (competition, innovation, customer welfare) of operator’s practices, as regards access to content and services. For this purpose, the draft report explores to what extent some operators’ practices could lead to differentiation, considering the incentives ofElectronic Communications Providers may have to implement traffic management techniques and their ability to distort competition (when acting against competitors’ equivalent services) and the economic impact of these practices in consumers’ welfare.

The draft is part of larger work-stream on net-neutrality also analysing other aspects of net neutrality such as transparency, quality of service and IP interconnectivity and was published for public consultation in the period 29 May - 31 July 2012.