The changing nature of the decision-making activity of the European Court of Justice and the regulatory approach of the European Commission in the field of telecommunications regulation

Abstract

For more than ten years I have been working as a lawyer in the telecommunications industry (I will stick to the traditional term “telecoms/telecommunications” instead of the only recently introduced term “electronic communications”) with focus on telecoms regulation, both sector-specific regulation as well as general competition-law regulation. In this article, I would like to look closer at the trends I have recently identified in the decision making activity of the European authorities, which might be generally called as politicisation of the activities. In particular, it can be described as a shift from a traditional legal positivism towards decision-making activities which are politically based or motivated. Based on my long-term experience with the way the telecoms sector works and is regulated, I drew my conclusions from the latest developments in the sector. I would like to point out that this article presents only my personal views and does not in any way represent the views of T-Mobile Czech Republic a.s.