Brussels, 30/01/2015 (Agence Europe) - In conclusions returned on Thursday 29 January (case C-1/14), Advocate General Pedro Cruz Villalôn found that mobile telephony and Internet connections through mobile telephony are not included in the notion of “universal service” as provided for by the directive on universal service and consumers' rights (2009/136/EC).
This means that the “social tariff” member states can impose for the provision of services of this kind in favour of certain categories of consumers would not apply, on the grounds of universal service, to this type of communication, but only to telephone communications and Internet access via a landline.
Consequently, member states which oblige telephone operators to provide these services at social tariff may do so only as “additional obligatory services”. In such cases, they must themselves finance, out of the public purse, the compensation to be paid to these operators for the additional costs incurred as a result of providing these communication services and may not require all operators to bear the cost of this compensation themselves (contrary to the provisions of the directive in the case of universal services).
In this case, the Court of Justice of the EU must reply to the Belgian Constitutional Court as to the compliance with the directive of the Belgian legislation, which includes mobile telephony and Internet access services in the “universal service” category. More specifically, the Belgian court asked whether the social tariff (and the corresponding compensation mechanism) is applicable to mobile telephony and Internet connection communications, either because this is required by the directive, or because the member states make that decision. (FG)