Telecoms firm GO is being forced to stop offering free data to users streaming music or using the company’s TV app.
In a text message that has started being sent to users, GO said that “due to legal requirements”, it will be terminating the free internet offer from October 1.
Normal rates will apply from then onwards, the text message read. GO is the only provider which offered free data for the services.
The change is being imposed on GO by the Malta Communications Authority (MCA) following three landmark judgments by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) handed down in September 2021.
According to the judgments, a ‘zero tariff’ option is a commercial practice whereby an internet access provider applies a ‘zero tariff’, or a tariff that is more advantageous, to all or part of the data traffic associated with an application or category of specific applications, offered by partners of that access provider.
“Those data are therefore not counted towards the data volume purchased as part of the basic package. Such an option, offered in the context of limited packages, thus allows internet access providers to increase the attractiveness of their offer.
“Consequently, such a commercial practice does not satisfy the general obligation of equal treatment of traffic, without discrimination or interference, laid down in the first subparagraph of Article 3(3) of Regulation 2015/212,” the court found.
The company has agreed to notify all impacted users by September 30, when all active zero-rated subscriptions will be terminated
The MCA, meanwhile, said that to reflect the judgments, the EU’s Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) also updated its guidelines.
As part of its efforts to ensure all market players comply with the rules set out by BEREC, the MCA requested that GO takes “the appropriate remedial measures, including the discontinuance of its zero-tariff offers and the withdrawal of existing offers from active contracts”.
GO has agreed to comply with the authority’s request and is currently in the process of phasing out its zero-rating practices and related tariffs.
The company has agreed to notify all impacted users by September 30, when all active zero-rated subscriptions will be terminated.
‘Zero-rating’ is when an internet service provider (ISP) applies a price of zero to the data traffic associated with a particular application or class of applications.
For example, if an internet access service does not charge a user for the data used to access a specific music streaming application or all music streaming applications, then the ISP is zero-rating those applications.