BEREC Input to the European Commission’s consultation on the revision of the Recommendation on relevant markets susceptible to ex ante regulation

The Recommendation on relevant markets susceptible to ex ante regulation (RRM) was last reviewed in 2020. According to Article 64 (1) of the European Electronic Communications Code (EECC), the European Commission (EC) shall review the Recommendation regularly.

The EC started the review process with a targeted consultation that opened on 17 June 2025. Following the conclusion of this exercise on 30 September 2025, the EC will analyse all the inputs received and prepare a draft Recommendation. BEREC is to issue an Opinion on this draft Recommendation and the EC shall take it into utmost account when preparing the final version of the new Recommendation.

This document is the BEREC response to the targeted consultation, as approved by e-voting procedure on 30 September 2025. The document is organised as follows: section 2 addresses the current status of ex ante regulation in Europe (i.e. EU/EEA, as well as the United Kingdom (UK) and Switzerland), section 3 deals with market developments and their (potential) impact on the relevant markets in electronic communications discussed in the RRM and section 4 focuses on the importance of the RRM regulatory tool for the sector. Finally, section 5 presents the conclusions.

BEREC is available to collaborate further with the EC during the review process leading to the adoption of the new Recommendation. In this context, the current response should be considered as an initial step in this collaborative process.