European Commission may take legal action against member states for not transposing digital and media laws into their national laws
The European Commission has said it will take legal action against member States who do not transpose Audio-Visual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) and the European Electronic Communications Code into their national laws and inform the Commission about the same.
Both are crucial for the E.U.’s digital transition. The Member States have 2 months to adopt them completely or else the European Commission will refer their cases to the Court of Justice of the European Union (E.U.).
The AVMSD aims to ensure a fair single market for broadcast services that keeps up with technological developments. It covers all the audio-visual media across the E.U., including both traditional TV broadcasters and on-demand video services and lays down essential protection measures with regard to content shared on video-sharing platforms.
The AVMSD creates a level playing field for different types of audio-visual media services, guarantees the independence of national media regulators, preserves cultural diversity by requiring video on demand services to have at least 30% of European works on offer and protects children and consumers by laying down rules for the protection of minors against harmful content. It also combats racial, religious and other types of hatred by having reinforced rules to combat the incitement to violence or hatred, and the public provocation to commit terrorist offences.
The European Electronic Communications Code aims to provide more choice to consumer, lower phone bills and higher standards of telecommunications service. It modernises the existing telecom rules, making them fit for the digital era. It will ensure consumers get higher connection speeds and higher coverage. It also benefits and protects consumers, irrespective of whether end-users communicate through traditional (calls, text message) or app-based services. Most importantly, it guaranteed fair play for all the players. The customers will benefit from enhanced protection through rules that ensure clarity of contractual information, quality of service and facilitating provider switching between networks to drive fairer retail prices.
The deadline for transposing the AVMSD was September 19, 2020. However, in November 2020, the European Commission launched infringement proceedings against 23 Member States for failure to notify complete transposition of the. As of now, only 15 Member States have notified transposition measures and 3 additional Member States have communicated partial notification.
The deadline for transposing the European Electronic Communications Code into national legislation was December 21, 2020. Bulgaria, Denmark, Greece, Hungary and Finland are the only countries who have notified the full transposition by the end of August 2021. Recently Belgium and Germany have also notified complete transposition, but their notification is under assessment. Czechia and France have done partial transposition.
