“Open Internet Turns 10: What's Next?” event: speech by Laure de La Raudière

Madam Member of Parliament, dear Stéphanie,

Ladies and Gentlemen Members of Parliament,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am very happy today to celebrate with you all the tenth anniversary of the European Open Internet Regulation.

First of all, I would like to thank you very sincerely, dear Stéphanie, for welcoming us today. It is an honor to celebrate this anniversary here, at the European Parliament, and to co-organize this event with you, as you are fully committed to all the economic and societal challenges of the digital world. Thank you all of you for your participation. It is an important moment for Arcep.

It is also highly symbolic for me, on a more personal level.

Fifteen years ago, when I was a MP in France, together with my colleague Corinne Erhel I called for the protection of net neutrality. Even then, we wanted to frame this debate as one about safeguarding freedoms, an approach that goes far beyond purely technical issues.

I remember well that we quoted Article 11 of the French Declaration of Human and Civic Rights. Let me say it : "the free communication of thoughts and opinions is one of the most precious rights of man." And we asked a simple question: what medium embodies this freedom better than the internet?

At first glance, net neutrality may appear to be a purely technical principle: routing data packets without discrimination across networks. Yet this apparent simplicity conceals major issues: the openness of the internet shapes both the freedom of communication of our European fellow citizens, the innovative capacity of our economies, and, more and more, our strategic digital autonomy.

I propose that we take a step back to the time when the Open Internet Regulation was adopted.

Ten years ago, connectivity and digital usage in the EU were not what it is today: Barely 20% of households had fibre connections. A lot of Europeans did not have access to a 4G network. Facebook had 50% fewer users worldwide than it does today. Only one person in three watched films or series via streaming and TikTok had not yet been launched. And while the amount of time spent behind our screens has not raised so much, the figures reveal major changes in usage, with smartphones and other screens gradually replacing our TVs.

Ten years ago, in this context, the European Union made a decisive choice for its digital future. It enshrined in law a clear and demanding principle: the open internet. An internet in which every citizen, every entrepreneur, every creator can access and share the content and services of their choice. Without discrimination, without unjustified prioritisation, and without blocking, except for illegal content. :

Let's recall the intense debates of the time: many of us feared the emergence of a multi-speed internet, in which certain services or content would be favoured at the expense of others, depending on the nature of the contracts users had subscribed to.

An internet in which the power to decide "what goes first" would have slipped away from users and become concentrated in the hands of a few technical or economic intermediaries. The tension was clear: on one side, the original promise of an open, decentralised internet, conducive to innovation and freedom of expression.

On the other, the temptation to monetise scarcity, to segment traffic, to turn networks into toll highways, giving priority access to those who could afford it.

Ten years ago, the European Union made a strong political choice. It affirmed a simple and structuring principle: all traffic on internet must be treated equally, without discrimination or restriction, regardless of its origin, destination, or content.

Behind this formula lies a founding idea: the network must not become a place where ideas, projects, or business models are sorted or filtered.

If we are gathered today, it is not only to celebrate this anniversary. It is also, and above all, to assess what this regulation has enabled, and what it must still enable us to achieve.

Ten years on, what can we say about this text and how it has been applied?

First, this text has provided a stable and predictable framework. A framework with tangible benefits. For whom?

For businesses, especially innovative players, which can emerge and grow without fear of being made invisible or held back by discriminatory practices. Would European music-streaming players still exist without net neutrality?

For telecom operators: a stable regulatory framework is an essential prerequisite for their investment. Looking at the levels of investment made by telecom operators in the EU in the last decade: around 500 billion euros, no one can say anymore that this regulation did slow investment. On the contrary. And in the same time nothing refrain operators to develop managed services such as IP TV or Voice over IP on their networks, as they are also allowed to develop 5G slicing services with the open internet rules.

Benefits for users at last, of course whose freedom of communication and choice is protected.

If we gather today, it is because the challenge is now twofold.

The first is to secure what exists, to reaffirm its essential strengths. The Regulation is not outdated: it sets principles and rules that are independent of the technologies used. This approach ensures that traffic-management obligations remain valid even with the widespread rollout of fibre, or 5G, or the emergence of network slicing. This principle-based approach has withstood the test of time extremely well.

The second challenge is more forward-looking: the Open Internet principle, which guarantees users' freedom of choice and innovation, must also be effective for the other structural intermediaries that shape our digital uses.

The recent Digital Markets Act and the Data Act are tools designed to unlock digital markets and make them more competitive by imposing openness or interoperability obligations on the structuring intermediaries that are the major "gatekeeper" platforms.

They also contribute to enforcing the principles of an open internet beyond the network layer. The European Commission's determination is to be welcomed, and it should be encouraged to continue implementation with real determination.

Today, we are facing a new challenge: the impact of artificial intelligence services on the future of the internet.

Generative AI is set to play a decisive role in how we access the diversity of content and services available on the internet. This promising innovation for our societies and economies is rapidly transforming our use of digital services. End-users are no longer necessarily encouraged to navigate on the web from link to link. Instead, they are led to concentrate their interactions on the interface of an AI agent.

This AI agent selects, rephrases, structures, filters, and ranks information, accesses certain third-party services on their behalf, and provides a single response in natural language. In doing so, it limits users' direct access to the original sources and services. Chatbots, too, have evolved from conversational assistants into genuine digital agents. Some of them can interact with other digital services (online shopping, streaming platforms, social networks, etc.), carry out our "digital actions" for us, and offer increasingly personalised experiences.

In this way, generative AI services constitute a new gateway to the internet.

What will become of the internet as we know it, where everyone is free to access, use, and share the content, applications, and services of their choice, if gen-AIs become our main gateways to information and online innovation? What risks does this pose to the guarantee of an "open internet"?

The open nature of the internet cannot be seen, touched or heard. And if we are not vigilant, the internet will close. Not abruptly and loudly, but silently, gently, under the pretext of convenience and personalization. Until the day when "choice" and "freedom" have lost their meaning.

We are very pleased, and also proud, to publish today a report that addresses these questions. From its technical and economic regulatory standpoint, Arcep aims to shed light on this new reality and to anticipate evolving patterns of use. This report is based on a complementary technical study carried out by data scientists and AI experts. We conducted dozens of interviews.

We propose avenues for recommendations to prevent AI services from gradually locking in users and to guarantee fair access to key online services.

We believe it is essential to reaffirm the principle of an open internet not only for ISP but for all structuring intermediairies between end-user and Internet content. The openness of the internet is not limited to the telecoms network layer: it must extend to all gateways to the internet, including those that AI could one day lock up.

We believe it is also essential to strengthen the transparency and traceability of the sources used by generative AI, to support auditable and assessable models, and to promote interoperability and open protocols.

These recommendations aim to preserve the diversity of the internet:

• where every user retains their freedom of choice,

• where innovation remains possible for all, and

• where the diversity of digital content and experiences is preserved.

To shed light on all these issues, we are particularly pleased to welcome today Tom Wheeler, former Chairman of the FCC. As you all know, he played a central role in the adoption of the 2015 Open Internet Order in the United States, a text that has inspired far beyond America's borders.

We will also have the pleasure of hearing from a panel bringing together:

• Romain Bonenfant, President of EuroISPA,

• Maarit Palovirta, Deputy Director General of Connect Europe,

• Cecilia Rikap, economist at University College London, expert in digital economy,

• and Cláudio Teixeira, Head of Digital Policy at BEUC.

Dear Stéphanie, thank you for your interest in this topic and for making this event possible. I extend my warmest thanks to all our speakers, and I look forward to the richness of the discussions to come.

Thank you all for being here, whether in Brussels or online.

And now, I give the floor to Tom Wheeler.

Laure de La Raudière, chairwoman of Arcep