On Thursday 3 April 2014, the European Parliament voted to adopt
net neutrality. The principle of net neutrality is that all data on
the internet is to be treated equally, regardless of platform,
application, source or user. The EU's proposal is therefore
intended to prevent anti-competitive blocking or
"throttling" of services and content by internet
providers, as well as providing the consumer with transparency and
choice.
The law still needs to be approved by the EU member states, but
the proposal puts Europe at odds with the U.S., where significant
fees are paid by some audio visual media on demand platforms to
ISPs to ensure better access to their subscribers.
The decision has been met with some resistance. For example, in
anticipation of the vote, the four big telecommunication industry
associations released a joint statement railing against what they
called "restrictive" amendments to the law. They went
onto say that a "rushed legislative process and a lack
