Europe’s network neutrality law passes crucial committee vote with poor safeguards

The European Parliament’s industry committee has passed Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes’s big telecoms legislation package, including a contentious section covering network neutrality.

The legislation is ostensibly supposed to entrench the principles of net neutrality in European law for the first time, guaranteeing that broadband and mobile providers treat all Internet services equally. However, part of the wording refers to “specialized services” that can be exempted from this principle, and the wording of the package as passed defines these services quite broadly.