Electronic communications regulation in Europe : an overview of past and future problems

For many years, electronic communications has been one of the most important areas of policy intervention or the European Union. Liberalisation and privatisation of the telecommunications industry were very important topics of the policy debate in the two decades from 1990 to 2010. In these years, the EU developed a sophisticated regulatory framework aspiring to the principle of favouring the entrance of new players in the sector and characterised by a strong pro-competition flavour. More recently, however, the necessity of mobilising important investments for the creation of new Next Generation Networks, capable of delivering all the benefits of the digital revolution to European citizens, has cast doubts on the validity of the established framework. This paper discusses the solutions adopted during the liberalisation process and summarizes some of the key future challenges to the existing regulatory framework

Smart cities and sharing economy

The concepts of smart city and sharing economy are at the centre of a number of current debates, which touch upon, among others, issues like the current urbanisation trends, the particular economic situation we are facing in the last years, the spread of connectivity and of new technologies and the innovation process in general. This working paper looks at the different and common characteristics of both smart cities and sharing economy models, in order to explore their interaction and complementary dynamics. This is done by analysing the specific features of the two, as well as at regulatory and competition issues they trigger within our current legal framework. The final aim is to make some policy suggestions to the local governments, which are called to cope with these phenomena, and for which the latter could constitute a great opportunity to enhance the local welfare

Deregulating Telecommunications in Europe: Timing, Path-Dependency, and Institutional Complementarities

We investigate institutional and policy drivers of telecommunications deregulation in Europe. In particular, we focus on those determinants which received so-far a comparatively little attention: policy speed and timing, path-dependency, institutional complementarity. We find that: first, crosseffects from privatizations to liberalizations reveal to affect the liberalization process; second, the telecommunications industry is shown to play a ‘pivotal role’ in the liberalization patterns of European countries; third, ‘path dependency’ turns out to be a crucial driver for telecommunications’ liberalizations; fourth, liberalizations in telecommunications result to be linked across European countries; fifth, ‘institutional complementarities’ between liberalization initiatives and regulatory authorities are shown to significantly shape the telecommunications market structure. Finally, we interpret our findings in light of the evolution of the European regulatory framework and suggest that these results may represent important lessons for policy design in other network industries.telecommunications; liberalizations; competition; panel regression

Monitoring media pluralism in Europe : testing and implementation of the media pluralism monitor 2014

The Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom (CMPF) has published a Report on the simplification and test implementation of a Media Pluralism Monitor (MPM). The tool is designed to identify potential risks to media pluralism in Member States. The Report tests the application of the tool in 9 Member States

How real will the metaverse be? Exploring the spatial impact of virtual worlds

Published online: 07 Jun 2023In this paper, we perform a preliminary analysis of the technologies, firms and industries that may be affected by the possible futures of the metaverse, attempting to derive some hypotheses on the spatial effects of this process. We distinguish between two possible evolutive scenarios – the ‘metaverse shaped by reality view’ and the ‘metaverse shaping reality view’ – and factors affecting them, deriving implications for public policy planning. The first scenario presents relatively traditional core policy challenges: ensuring homogeneous availability of network infrastructures as well as the skills indispensable to catch the new technological opportunities at the local level, accompanying the reallocation of factors of production associated to disruption and addressing inequalities. In the second, the main challenge is more radical: to ensure that desirable features are incorporated in the emerging virtual worlds from the start

Position statement on the European Commission’s proposal for a SEPs regulation

On 27th April 2023, the European Commission published a proposal for a Regulation on Standard Essential Patents (hereinafter, SEPs Regulation) and allowed the public to provide feedback. The Centre for a Digital Society (CDS) of the European University Institute (EUI) is thankful for the opportunity to offer its comments and make suggestions on the proposed Regulation. Our team of researchers has significant research, policy and training experience in the areas of intellectual property, telecommunications regulation, standardisation and EU competition policy. In this Position Statement, we caution against adopting the proposed SEPs Regulation in its current form and suggest adopting guidance under Arts. 101 and 102 TFEU to clarify how SEP licensing should occur not to breach EU competition law. In the sub-optimal scenario where EU institutions would continue to pursue an immediate regulatory intervention, we provide substantial suggestions in an attempt to improve the current proposal of SEPs Regulation and limit certain negative consequences. Our constructive criticism aims to be a catalyst for the debate in the legislative process about the appropriate SEP licensing framework

The evolving regulation of the media in Europe as an instrument for freedom and pluralism

European regulation of the media is influenced by the economic regulation of networks, contents, and e-commerce, to which it is very close. However, media regulation has one peculiar differentiating characteristic: it cannot concentrate only on market competition, as the rest of modern economic regulation does, but has to pursue other fundamental values. In particular, media pluralism and media freedom emerge as policy goals that are essential for democracy and human rights in Europe. In this paper, we discuss the EU’s search for a point of equilibrium in Member States’ resistance to the relinquishing of their power in the sector; we describe the current debate, and suggest some possible directions for development

Lessons from the postal sector to telecommunications and vice versa

The arrival and diffusion of the commercial Internet has been one of the main causes of change in the postal sector in the last two decades. Its impact has been rapid and it has gone straight to the core of postal operators’ (POs’) activities: the mail business. Electronic communications, especially email, available at zero marginal cost and relatively high quality, have quickly changed consumers’ and businesses’ communicating habits, leading to substitution away from traditional physical mails. Although substantial postal volumes remain, for reasons that will later be discussed, it has certainly hit the sector’s volume and profitability dramatically

Antitrust authorities in Italy and in Europe in a new framework

The Ec Directive 2005/29/EC on unfair commercial practices has introduced the direct consumers protection from unfair practices of professionals, thus providing new tasks for the antitrust authorities in Europ