Call for Initial Stakeholder Input on the BEREC Guidelines on the Criteria for a Consistent Application of Article 61(3)

During its 39^th plenary meeting (13-14 June 2019, Ghent) the Board of Regulators has approved to launch a “Call for initial Stakeholder Input” for the development of the BEREC Guidelines on the Criteria for a Consistent Application of Article 61 (3) which enables stakeholder to provide early input for the development of these guidelines (prior to public consultation of draft Guidelines).

According to the EECC National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) may impose – upon reasonable request and regardless of any findings of significant market power – access to wiring and cables and associated facilities inside buildings or up to the first concentration or distribution point as determined by the NRA. Access obligations may be imposed on electronic communication network providers or owners of such network elements, where replication of the network elements concerned would be economically inefficient or physically impracticable.

Where access obligations pursuant to Art. 61 (3) subparagraph 1 of the EECC do not sufficiently address economic or physical barriers to replication, Art. 61 (3) subparagraph 2 EECC authorizes NRA’s to extend the imposition of access obligations (including active or virtual access obligations if justified) beyond the first concentration or distribution point up to a point capable of hosting a sufficient number of end-user connections to be commercially viable for efficient access seekers.

The policy principle behind Art. 61(3) of the EECC is the promotion of sustainable competition in the interest of end-users connectivity and efficient investment, in particular in very high capacity networks, by giving NRAs the possibility to ensure access to non-replicable infrastructure where justified and proportionate, i.e. where bottlenecks would not allow an efficient operator to replicate network elements.

This call for input gives stakeholders the opportunity for an early involvement in the development of the BEREC guidelines on the Criteria for a Consistent Application of Article 61(3) of the European Electronic Communications Code (EECC).

Stakeholder submissions will be published unless declared as confidential but BEREC would not be publishing a direct response to their input at this stage.

Stakeholders will have an opportunity (on a later stage) to provide further submissions to BEREC when Draft Guidelines are consulted and BEREC will respond to that input in a separate document. BEREC shall publish guidelines to foster a consistent application of Art. 61 (3) EECC by the end of 2020.

This call for inputs is intended to inform BEREC on the views of stakeholders related to development of the BEREC guidelines on the Criteria for a Consistent Application of Article 61 (3)

Please provide your input to [email protected] by 15 July 2019 17:00 CET. Contributions should preferably be submitted in English language.