MEconomy Minister Micky Adriaansens fears that Internet users will eventually have to foot the bill. Will the Netherlands plant a bomb under the proposal?

The European Union has been working for several months on a proposal to allow large Internet companies such as Google, Meta, Amazon and Netflix to contribute to the network costs of telecom providers. These companies blew up internet traffic in Europe, so it’s only natural that they do their fair share. This argument was clearly repeated by EU Commissioner Thierry Breton during the Mobile World Congress, which started today in Barcelona.

Consumers pay the bill

Breton’s opinion is not shared by Micky Adriaansens, the Dutch economy minister. In an interview with Reuters, the minister pointed out that the proposal would endanger the neutrality of the Internet. In addition, Adriaansens fears that the Internet companies will pass on the costs of the “network tax” to the users of their platforms, which will lead to higher prices for Internet services.

“This proposal will penalize consumers. We first have to thoroughly analyze what the problem is and what a normal market reaction is,” says the minister in an interview. The criticism is supported by an Oxera study commissioned by the government. The research shows that the increasing volume of data in Europe has not led to significantly higher operating costs for providers.

Europe divided

This will be music to Big Tech’s ears. Google and Co firmly reject the proposal. Telecom operators, on the other hand, have been actively promoting large data consumers to share in their costs for several years. Orange CEO Christel Heydemann sounded the alarm during her keynote address at MWC 2023 by saying that telecom operators cannot survive another decade in the current “paradoxical landscape”. As an extension of the Digital Markets Act, Europe increasingly listened to this call to send a strong signal to the tech giants.

Consumers always want to get more and pay less. At the same time, operators must try to reduce their capital expenditures while the data volume is increased by a handful of big players.

Christel Heydemann, Orange CEO

However, the proposal has come under heavy fire as the Netherlands is not the first member state to oppose fair contributions. Germany, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Estonia have also sent an open letter to the Commission to block the proposal. Breton does not seem ready to change his position immediately, but it seems rather doubtful that the Commission will soon be able to push through a proposal that can count on sufficient support within the Union.

This article originally appeared on 27/02 2:01 p.m. Last updated on 28.02. 09h43 with a quote from Orange CEO Christel Heydemann.