Pandora's Box: Profiling Of High-risk Suppliers

Profiling of high-risk suppliers - a controversial proposal of a completely new concept for the assessment of market participants in new TKG draft

Just before Christmas, the Federal Government presented the overdue draft of a new Telecommunications Act (TKG). Among other things, the provisions of the European Electronic Communications Code (Directive (EU) 2018/1972) are to be transposed into national law. In the round of adjustments and new regulations, one area of regulation stands out in particular: Section 44a of the TKG introduces a regime for the qualification of high-risk suppliers that was not part of the European Electronic Communications Code or previously known to the Austrian legal system in this form. The Minister of Agriculture is to classify manufacturers and service providers for network components as high-risk suppliers for reasons of national security by means of a notice and, as a last consequence, be able to exclude them from the market.