The European Court of Justice has decided that the zero-rating tariff options offered by Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom in Germany violate EU rules on net neutrality and roaming.
The controversial tariff options, Vodafone Pass and Deutsche Telekom’s StreamOn, draw a distinction within internet traffic, on the basis of commercial considerations, by excluding the data traffic generated by audio and video streaming from the mobile network operators’ content partners from the data allowance contractually agreed in the tariffs.
According to the European Union’s highest court, such a commercial practice is contrary to the general obligation of equal treatment of traffic, without discrimination or interference, as required by the regulation on open internet access. Limitations on bandwidth, tethering or roaming are also incompatible with EU law, according to the ruling.
The zero-rating options offered by Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom already caused several regulatory and court decisions after which the operators had to adjust the tariffs.
