Dutch incumbent KPN and Vodafone’s local arm have each been fined for falling foul of the Netherlands’ net neutrality law.
According to the Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM), KPN prevented consumers from accessing various services, including VoIP, via its free WiFi hotspots.
"It is forbidden for Internet providers to determine what their customers can and cannot do on the Internet," said the regulator, in a statement on Tuesday.
Vodafone’s contravention of the net neutrality rules was somewhat different from KPN’s. It introduced an app from cable network HBO, usage of which did not count against a customer’s data allowance.
Under Dutch law, ISPs are not permitted to charge different access rates for specific online services, the ACM said.
For breaching the rules, the watchdog fined KPN and Vodafone €250,000 and €200,000 respectively.
"All data must be transmitted under the same conditions," said ACM board member Henk Don. "That’s the idea behind net neutrality and that is what we are maintaining now."
The Netherlands is one of the few countries in Europe to have ens hrined net neutrality into law, but that might not be the case for much longer, as the European Union seeks to stop service providers from discriminating unnecessarily against legal forms of Internet traffic.
Latvia, which recently took on the presidency of the European Council, said it wants to find "an overall compromise" on the telco reform, and strike a balance "between high-quality services and a reasonable cost for consumers."
Industry players welcome the tone, but warned against heavy-handed regulation.
"Overly prescriptive or intrusive rules would risk degrading today’s Internet experience and limiting its development potential," said industry body ETNO, on Monday. "Policymakers should favour a forward-looking approach, recognising that the evolution of the Internet is an ongoing process."
