Germany

[DE] Regulatory Authority Complains of Discrimination over Cable Charges

IRIS 1999-4:1/26

Alexander Scheuer

Institute of European Media Law (EMR), Saarbrücken/Brussels

The Regulatory Authority for Telecommunications and Post ( RegTP) has claimed that the way Deutsche Telekom AG organized charges for the feeding of programmes into broad band cable networks was discriminatory.

Responding to complaints from various broadcasting companies and private broadcasters, the RegTP examined the provisions of the regulation on fees, applied by Deutsche Telekom AG, contained in Section 30 of the Telecommunications Act. It emerged that the leading German network operator applied different fees, depending on how the programmes were transmitted. Charges made for the feeding of programmes it received via terrestrial systems differed from those for programmes received via satellite. The Regulatory Authority asked Deutsche Telekom AG to cease this discriminatory practice within nine months.