Amendements-compromis ITRE-IMCO 7juil

Telecoms Package Compromise amendments

These compromise amendments have been tabled for vote in Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) committee on July 7th. It should be noted that these compromise amendments have not been published officially before the vote. IMCO members have voted them without knowing the content. Hopefully, La Quadrature du Net has got a copy of these compromise amendments and produced an analysis to alert MEPs and citizens.

Compromise amendment 2

Article 20
End-user interests and rights

[1. Changed and moved to 1(2a)]

2. Member States shall ensure that, where subscribing to services
providing connection to a public communications network and/or
electronic communications services, consumers, and other end-users so
requesting, have a right to a contract with an undertaking or
undertakings providing such services and/or connection. The contract
shall specify in a clear, comprehensive and easily accessible form at
least:

 (a) the identity and address of the supplier;

 (b) services provided, including in particular:
  - where access to emergency services and caller location information
    is to be provided under Article 26, the level of reliability of
    such access, where relevant, and whether access is provided in the
    whole of the national territory,
  - information on any restrictions imposed by the provider regarding a
    subscriber's ability to access, use or distribute lawful content or
    run lawful applications and services,
  - the service quality levels, with reference to any parameters
    specified under Article 22(2) as appropriate,
  - types of maintenance and customer support services offered, as well
    as how to contact customer support,
  - the time for the initial connection, and
  - any restrictions on the use of terminal equipment imposed by the
    provider;

 (c) the subscriber's decision as to whether to include his or her
 personal data in a directory and the data concerned;

 (d) particulars of prices and tariffs and the means by which
 up-to-date information on all applicable tariffs and maintenance
 charges may be obtained, payment methods offered and any differences
 in costs due to payment method;

 (e) the duration of the contract, the conditions for renewal and
 termination of services and of the contract, including 
  - any charges related to portability of numbers and other
    identifiers, and
  - any charges due on termination of the contract, including any cost
    recovery with respect to terminal equipment;

 (f) any compensation and the refund arrangements which apply if
 contracted service quality levels are not met; 

 (g) the method of initiating procedures for settlement of disputes in
 accordance with Article 34;

 (h) the type of action that might be taken by the undertaking
 providing connection and/or services in reaction to security or
 integrity incidents or threats and vulnerabilities, as well as any
 compensation arrangements which apply if security or integrity
 incidents occur.

The contract shall also include any information provided by the
relevant public authorities on the use of electronic communications
networks and services to carry out unlawful activities or to
disseminate harmful content, and the means of protection against
risks to personal security, privacy and personal data, as referred to
in Article 21(4a) and relevant to the service provided.

7. Subscribers have a right to withdraw from their contracts without
penalty upon notice of modifications in the contractual conditions
proposed by operators. Subscribers shall be given adequate notice,
not shorter than one month, ahead of any such modifications and shall
be informed at the same time of their right to withdraw, without
penalty, from such contracts, if they do not accept the new
conditions.

Compromise amendment 3

Article 21
Transparency and publication of information

[1. Deleted (merged into 21(2))]

2. Member States shall ensure that undertakings providing connection
to a public electronic communications networks and/or electronic
communications services publish transparent, comparable, adequate and
up-to-date information on applicable prices and tariffs, any charges
due on termination of a contract, and information on standard terms
and conditions, in respect of access and use of their services
provided to end-users and consumers in accordance with Annex II. Such
information shall be published in a clear, comprehensive and easily
accessible form. National regulatory authorities may specify
additional requirements regarding the form in which such information
shall be published.

3. National regulatory authorities shall encourage the provision of
comparable information to enable end-users and consumers to make an
independent evaluation of the cost of alternative usage patterns, by
means of interactive guides or similar techniques. Member States
shall ensure that national regulatory authorities make such guides or
techniques available themselves or through third parties, when these
are not available on the market free of charge or at a reasonable
price. Third parties shall have a right to use without charge the
information published by undertakings providing electronic
communications networks and/or services, for the purposes of selling
or making available such interactive guides or similar techniques.

4. Member States shall ensure that national regulatory authorities
are able to oblige undertakings providing connection to a public
electronic communications network and/or electronic communications
services, to inter alia:

 (a) provide applicable tariff information to subscribers regarding
 any number or service subject to particular pricing conditions; with
 respect to individual categories of services national regulatory
 authorities may require such information to be provided prior to
 connecting the call;

 (b) regularly remind subscribers of any lack of reliable access to
 emergency services or caller location information in the service they
 have subscribed to;

 (c) inform subscribers of any change to any restrictions imposed by
 the undertaking on their ability to access, use or distribute lawful
 content or run lawful applications and services of their choice;

 (d) inform subscribers of their right to include their personal data
 in a directory and of the types of data concerned; and

 (e) regularly inform disabled subscribers of details of current
 products and services aimed at them.

If deemed appropriate, national regulatory authorities may promote
self- or co-regulatory measures prior to imposing any obligations or
to complement any obligations imposed.

4a. Member States shall ensure that national regulatory authorities
oblige the undertakings referred to in paragraph 4 to distribute
public interest information to existing and new subscribers when
appropriate. Such information shall be produced by the relevant
public authorities in a standardised format and shall inter alia
cover the following topics:

 (a) the most common uses of electronic communications services to
 carry out unlawful activities or to disseminate harmful content,
 particularly where it may prejudice respect for the rights and
 freedoms of others, including infringement of copyright and related
 rights, and their consequences; and

 (b) means of protection against risks to personal security, privacy
 and personal data in using electronic communications services.

Significant additional costs incurred by an undertaking in complying
with these obligations shall be reimbursed by the relevant public
authorities.

Compromise amendment 4

Recitals to Article 20, 21 and 22(3)

(11a) The provisions on contracts should apply not only to consumers
but also to other end-users, primarily micro, small and medium-sized
enterprises, who may prefer a contract adapted to consumer needs. To
avoid unnecessary administrative burdens on providers and complexity
related to the definition of SMEs, the provisions on contracts should
not apply automatically to those other end-users but only where they
so request. Member States should take appropriate measures to promote
awareness amongst SMEs of this possibility.

(12) Providers of electronic communications services should ensure
that their customers are adequately informed as to whether or not
access to emergency services and caller location information is
provided, and are given clear and transparent information in the
initial customer contract and at regular intervals thereafter, for
example in customer billing information. The information should
include any limitations as to territorial coverage, on the basis of
the planned technical operating parameters of the service and the
available infrastructure. Where the service is not provided over a
switched telephony network, the information should also include the
level of reliability of the access and of caller location information
compared to such a service, taking into account current technology
and quality standards, as well as any quality of service parameters
specified under the provisions of Directive 2002/22/EC. Voice calls
remain the most robust and reliable form of access to emergency
services. Other means of contact, such as text messaging, may be less
reliable and may suffer from lack of immediacy. Member States should
however, if they deem appropriate, be free to promote the development
and implementation of other means of access to emergency services
capable of ensuring access equivalent to voice calls. Customers
should also be kept well informed of possible types of actions that
the provider of electronic communications service may take to address
security threats or in response to a security or integrity incident,
since such actions could have a direct or indirect impact on the
customer’s data, privacy or other aspects of the service provided.

(12a) With respect to terminal equipment, the customer contract
should specify any restrictions imposed by the provider on the
customer's use of the equipment, such as by way of "SIM-locking"
mobile devices, and any charges due on termination of the contract,
whether before or on the agreed expiry date, including any cost in
order to retain the equipment.

(12b) Without imposing any obligation on the provider to take action
over and above what is required under Community law, the customer
contract should also specify the type of action, if any, the provider
might take in case of security or integrity incidents, threats or
vulnerabilities, as well as any arrangements implemented by the
provider to provide compensation if such events occur.

(12c) In order to address public interest issues with respect to the
use of communications services, and to encourage protection of the
rights and freedoms of others, the relevant national authorities
should be able to produce and have disseminated, with the aid of
providers, information related to the use of communications services.
This information should include warnings regarding copyright
infringement, other unlawful uses and dissemination of harmful
content, and advice and means of protection against risks to personal
security, which may for example arise from disclosure of personal
information in certain circumstances, privacy and personal data. The
information could be coordinated by way of the cooperation procedure
established in Article 33(2a). Such public interest information
should be produced either as a preventative measure or in response to
particular problems, it should be updated whenever necessary and it
should be presented in easy to comprehend printed and electronic
formats, as determined by each Member State, and on national public
authority websites. National regulatory authorities should be able to
oblige providers to disseminate this information to their customers
in a manner deemed appropriate by the national regulatory
authorities. Significant additional costs incurred by service
providers for dissemination of such information, for example if the
provider is obliged to send the information by post and thereby
incurs additional postage costs, should be agreed between the
providers and the relevant authorities and met by those authorities.
The information should also be included in contracts.

(13) Community rules on consumer protection and national rules in
conformity with Community law should apply to Directive 2002/22/EC
without exception.

Merged recital 14 and 16 (14-14c)

(14) It should be the end-users' decision what lawful content they
want to be able to send and receive, and which services,
applications, hardware and software they want to use for such
purposes, without prejudice to the need to preserve the integrity and
security of networks and services. A competitive market with
transparent offerings as provided for in Directive 2002/22/EC should
ensure that end-users are able to access and distribute any lawful
content and to use any lawful applications and/or services of their
choice, as stated in Article 8 of Directive 2002/21/EC. Given the
increasing importance of electronic communications for consumers and
businesses, users should in any case be fully informed of any
restrictions and/or limitations imposed on the use of electronic
communications services by the service and/or network provider. Such
information should, in the choice of the provider, specify either the
type of content, application or service concerned, or individual
applications or services, or both. Depending on the technology used
and the type of restriction and/or limitation, such restrictions
and/or limitations may require user consent under Directive
2002/58/EC (Privacy Directive).

(14a) A competitive market should also ensure that users are able to
have the quality of service they require, but in particular cases it
may be necessary to ensure that public communications networks attain
minimum quality levels so as to prevent degradation of service, usage
restrictions and/or limitations and the slowing of traffic. Where
there is a lack of effective competition, national regulatory
authorities should use the remedies available to them under the
Directives constituting the regulatory framework for electronic
communications networks and services to ensure that users’ access to
particular types of content or applications is not unreasonably
restricted. It should also be possible for national regulatory
authorities to issue guidelines setting minimum quality of service
requirements under Directive 2002/22/EC and to take other measures in
case such other remedies have, in their judgement, not been
effective, in view of the interests of users and all other relevant
circumstances. Such guidelines or measures could include the
provision of a basic tier of unrestricted service.

(14b) Management of networks in order to, for example, address
congestion and capacity constraints and to enable new services should
not per se be considered an example of a restriction requiring
intervention, and due account should be taken of the right of network
and service operators to diversify their offerings in a competitive
market, including the imposition of reasonable usage restrictions,
price differentiation and other legitimate competitive practices.
Temporary non-compliance with any minimum quality of service
requirements due to unforeseeable circumstances beyond the reasonable
control of the service and/or network provider (force majeure) should
not be subject to sanctions.

(14c) Since inconsistent remedies will significantly impair the
achievement of the internal market, the Commission should assess any
guidelines or other measures set by national regulatory authorities
for possible regulatory intervention across the Community and, if
necessary, adopt technical implementing measures in order to achieve
consistent application throughout the Community.

(15) The availability of transparent, up-to-date and comparable
tariffs is a key element for consumers in competitive markets with
several providers offering services. Consumers of electronic
communications services should be able to easily compare prices of
various services offered on the market based on tariff information
published in an easily accessible form. In order to allow them to
make price comparisons easily, national regulatory authorities should
have powers to require from operators better tariff transparency and
to ensure that third parties have the right to use without charge
publicly available tariffs published by undertakings providing
electronic communications services. They should also, themselves or
through third parties, make price guides available where the market
has not provided them free of charge or at a reasonable price.
Operators should not be entitled to any remuneration for such use of
tariffs which had already been published and thus belong to the
public domain. In addition, users should be adequately informed of
the price involved or the type of service offered before they
purchase a service, in particular if a freephone number is subject to
any additional charges. National regulatory authorities should be
able to require that such information is provided generally, and, for
certain categories of services determined by the national regulatory
authorities, prior to connecting the call. When determining the
categories of call requiring pricing information prior to connection
national regulatory authorities should take due account of the nature
of the service, the pricing conditions applying to it and whether it
is offered by a provider who is not a provider of electronic
communications services.

[(16) Merged into 14]

(15a) Customers should be informed about their rights with respect to
the use of their personal information in directories of subscribers,
in particular about the purpose(s) of such directories, as well as
their right, free of charge, not to be included in a public
subscriber directory, as stipulated in Directive 2002/58/EC. Where
systems exist allowing information to be included in the directory
database but not disclosed to users of directory services customers
should also be informed of that possibility.

Compromise amendment 5

Article 22(3)
"Net neutrality"

A national regulatory authority may issue guidelines setting minimum
quality of service requirements, and, if appropriate, take other
measures, in order to prevent degradation of service and slowing of
traffic over networks, and to ensure that the ability of users to
access or distribute lawful content or to run lawful applications and
services of their choice is not unreasonably restricted. Those
guidelines or measures shall take due account of any standards issued
under Article 17 of Directive 2002/12/EC (Framework Directive).

The Commission may, having examined such guidelines or measures and
consulted [xxx], adopt technical implementing measures in that regard
if it considers that the guidelines or measures may create a barrier
to the internal market. These measures, designed to amend
non-essential elements of this Directive by supplementing it, shall
be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny
referred to in Article 37(2).

Compromise amendment 6

Article 26
Emergency services and the single European emergency call number

1. Member States shall ensure that, in addition to any other national
emergency call numbers specified by the national regulatory
authorities, all end-users of services referred to in paragraph 2,
including users of public pay telephones, are able to call the
emergency services free of charge and without having to use any means
of payment, by using the single European emergency call number "112".

2. Member States, in cooperation with national regulatory
authorities, emergency services and providers, shall ensure that
undertakings providing an electronic communications service for
originating national and/or international calls through a number or
numbers in a national or international telephone numbering plan
provide reliable access to emergency services.

3. Member States shall ensure that the emergency services are able to
appropriately respond to and handle all calls to the single European
emergency call number "112" in a manner best suited to the national
organisation of emergency systems. Such calls shall be answered and
handled at least as expeditiously and effectively as calls to
national emergency number or numbers, where these continue in use.

4. Member States shall ensure that disabled end-users have access to
emergency services equivalent to that enjoyed by other end-users. In
order to ensure that disabled end-users are able to access emergency
services while travelling in other Member States, the measures taken
shall include ensuring compliance with relevant standards or
specifications published in accordance with the provisions of Article
17 of Directive 2002/21/EC (Framework Directive).

5. Member States shall ensure that caller location information is
made available free of charge, and as soon as the emergency call
reaches the authority handling the emergency. This shall also apply
to all calls to the single European emergency call number "112". 

6. Member States shall ensure that in addition to information about
their national emergency numbers, all citizens of the Union are
adequately informed about the existence and use of the single
European emergency call number "112", in particular through
initiatives specifically targeting persons travelling between Member
States.

7. In order to ensure the effective implementation of "112" services
in the Member States, the Commission, having consulted [xxx], may
adopt technical implementing measures. 

Those measures designed to amend non-essential elements of this
Directive, by supplementing it shall be adopted in accordance with
the regulatory procedure with scrutiny referred to in Article 37(2).

Recital 19

End-users should be able to call and access the emergency services
provided using any telephone service capable of originating voice
calls through a number or numbers in the national or international
telephone numbering plans. Emergency authorities should be able to
handle and answer calls to the number “112” at least as expeditiously
and effectively as calls to other national emergency numbers. It is
important to increase awareness of “112” in order to improve the
level of protection and security of citizens travelling in the
European Union. To this end, citizens should be made fully aware that
“112” can be used as a single emergency number when travelling in any
Member States, in particular through information provided in
international bus terminals, train stations, ports or airports and in
telephone directories, payphone kiosks, subscriber and billing
material. This is primarily a responsibility for the Member States
but the Commission should continue both to support and supplement
initiatives by the Member States to further awareness of "112" and
its periodical evaluations of the knowledge of "112" by the public.
The obligation to provide caller location information should be
strengthened so as to increase the protection of citizens of the
European Union. In particular, operators should provide caller
location information to emergency services in a “push” mode. In order
to respond to technological developments, including those leading to
increasingly precise accuracy of location information, the Commission
should be able to adopt technical implementing measures in order to
ensure the effective implementation of “112” in the Community for the
benefit of citizens of the European Union.

Compromise amendment 7

Article 33
Consultation with interested parties

1. Member States shall ensure as far as appropriate that national
regulatory authorities take account of the views of end-users,
consumers, manufacturers and undertakings that provide electronic
communications networks and/or services on issues related to all
end-user and consumer rights concerning publicly available electronic
communications services, in particular where they have a significant
impact on the market.

In particular, Member States shall ensure that national regulatory
authorities establish consultation mechanisms ensuring that in their
decision-making process due consideration is given to, and account
taken of, issues related to end-users, including, in particular,
disabled end-users.

2. Where appropriate, interested parties may develop, with the
guidance of national regulatory authorities, mechanisms, involving
consumers, user groups and service providers, to improve the general
quality of service provision by, inter alia, developing and
monitoring codes of conduct and operating standards.

(2a) Without prejudice to national rules in conformity with Community
law promoting cultural and media policy objectives, such as cultural
and linguistic diversity and media pluralism, national regulatory
authorities and other relevant authorities shall also as far as
appropriate promote cooperation between undertakings providing
electronic communications networks and/or services and the sectors
interested in the protection and promotion of lawful content in
electronic communication networks and services. These co-operation
mechanisms may also include coordination of the public interest
information to be made available as set out in Article 21(4a) and
Article 20(2).

3. deleted

4. Without prejudice to the application of Directive 1999/5/EC and in
particular of disability requirements pursuant to its Article
3(3)(f), and in order to improve accessibility to electronic
communications services and equipment by disabled end-users, the
Commission may take the appropriate technical implementing measures,
following a public consultation after having consulted [xxx]. These
measures designed to amend non-essential elements of this Directive
by supplementing it shall be adopted in accordance with the
regulatory procedure with scrutiny referred to in Article 37(2).