It seemed to find its way into law by way of Skype, specifically people not wanting to be charged extra by their ISP for using big bandwidth things like Skype. A bill making it illegal for them to do that passed the Dutch Parliament and is expected to pass the Senate with ease. It’s the first European country to make net neutrality the law of the land but what’s really interesting is whether it will make other European countries more likely to do the same.
The European Union endorses net neutrality principles, which state that telecommunication companies may charge extra for some services, but need to tell customers what they are doing.
The European Commission has adopted a “wait and see” approach with Neelie Kroes, Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, stating in April that Brussels would spend 2011 “closely looking at current market practices”.
Ms Kroes promised to present the findings and publicly name “operators engaging in doubtful practices” at the end of 2011.
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