Do Net Neutrality Rules Cement the Power of Online Gatekeepers?

The Strathclyde Centre for Antitrust law and Empirical Study (SCALES), in association with Shepherd and Wedderburn, is holding webinar by Dr Oles Andriychuk on Wednesday 11 November from 1230-1345 hours.

At first glance, Net Neutrality represents a noble, uncontroversial idea: all Internet traffic created by Content and Application Providers (CAPs) must be delivered to end users by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) without discrimination, on the first come first served principle. The conventional narrative traces the origins and the evolution of the principle back to the very emergence of the Internet, referring to its founding fathers’ numerous commentaries that the idea of Net Neutrality is the cornerstone of the very architecture of the Internet, its Alpha and Omega. This paper seeks to demonstrate that the principle of Net Neutrality – at least in the form it is adopted in the EU/UK legislation – is (i) anticompetitive; (ii) does not serve the interests of EU/UK digital sovereignty and constraints their potential in the global digital race; (iii) was introduced to the advantages of its real beneficiaries – Big Tech companies; (iv) cements status quo and slows down innovation and new entrants; (v) delegitimises an important competitive parameter – Internet speed; and (vi) should be modified by softening its requirements and allowing some controlled instances of commercial traffic management. To substantiate these propositions, the paper looks at the main economic parameters of the principle and demonstrates who, where, how and why exploits wrong interpretation of those parameters. It then demythologises 7½ false assumptions about Net Neutrality, which allows at the end to shape the key elements of the regulatory proposal for the softening of the current rules. 

Oles Andriychuk is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Strathclyde, co-director of the Strathclyde Centre for Internet Law and Policy and a member of Strathclyde Centre for Antitrust and Regulatory Study. His research interests are focused on the normative foundations of competition law, economics, and on the regulation of the digital economy. 

This event is free of charge but we would ask that you register, in advance.