Ref. Ares(2022)8177167 - 25/11/2022
Virtual meeting with Internet Society – June 30, 2022 
Participants:  
, Internet Society 
, Internet Society 
, Internet Society 
Christiane Canenbley, Cab Vestager 
Werner Stengg, Cab Vestager 
, Cab Vestager (note taker) 
 
Internet Society is a global non-profit organization that was founded 30 years ago, which aims to 
promote and defend an internet that is open, accessible and globally secure. The organization helps 
build community networks with connectivity projects worldwide, and analyses policies to assess 
whether they will benefit or harm the internet using an in-house assessment toolkit.  
 
Internet Society wished to express their concerns about the recent requests by telecommunications 
companies for contributions to be made by OTTs to finance internet infrastructure, claiming market 
failure in this area. Internet Society explained that currently the internet is characterized by 
decentralized management and a distributed routing system. The peer relations within the system 
enable this decentralization and make for a vibrant ecosystem that caters to the needs of the internet. 
Internet Society is concerned that if the balance is broken, this could potentially harm the general 
principles of openness and accessibility that characterizes the internet. 
 
Internet Society wanted to understand the Commission’s thoughts on this, as well as express their 
concern with the potential impact this might have on the openness and accessibility of the internet.  
 
Cabinet Vestager took note of the concerns expressed and explained that what was planned for the 
Autumn was an amendment of the Broadband Cost Reduction Directive, which needed to be updated. 
Whether or not there was a need for a specific intervention on the issues raised by the Internet Society, 
was still subject to internal fact-finding and discussions. The Cabinet expressed an interest in obtaining 
more information on the in-house assessment toolkit used by the Internet Society, as well as any 
relevant facts and figures that the Society may have at its disposal. 
 
 

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