Meta is not above the law – Deutsche Telekom

In the dispute with Telekom over data traffic into Telekom's network, Meta is once again twisting the facts. These are:

All data traffic from the provider Meta to the Deutsche Telekom network used to run via direct connections for a fee. During the coronavirus crisis, Meta stopped making these payments. Deutsche Telekom filed a lawsuit against this and was upheld by the Cologne Regional Court. In order to avoid the lawful payments, Meta has decided to route its data traffic via a transit provider to Deutsche Telekom's network instead of the previous direct route. Meta has failed negotiations for further direct interconnection. 

For the new transfer points, Deutsche Telekom has more than sufficiently expanded its capacities with the transit provider used by Meta. For Meta's large amounts of data – the company feeds a gigantic 3.5 terabytes into Deutsche Telekom's network, which corresponds to about 100,000 HD films and all that per second – Deutsche Telekom has done everything in its power to ensure smooth data traffic. It is now Meta's responsibility to use the sufficient capacities accordingly and to route the data traffic without interference, because Meta alone decides how Meta traffic is routed to Deutsche Telekom's network. The start of the rerouting of data traffic in the night from Tuesday to Wednesday went smoothly.

Instead of accepting the ruling of an independent German court, Meta is now playing a gross foul. Deutsche Telekom will continue to charge Meta for its data transport service as an advance service for its online business model. 

Meta is once again abusing its overwhelming bargaining power to discredit legitimate concerns of the European telecommunications industry and consumers in order to avoid fair payment. This is not just about a difference of opinion between two companies, but about the question of whether the power of the strongest prevails on the Internet or whether there is a fair balance between all participants. We hope that this debate will not be carried out on the backs of the citizens. Even a company like Meta is not above the law.

The case therefore underlines the urgent need for action in Brussels: Europe-wide regulations are needed to ensure the settlement of disputes. We expressly welcome the European Commission's proposal to introduce a binding dispute resolution mechanism. If Big Tech and network operators cannot agree on an appropriate price for data transport, an arbitrator, e.g. a regulatory authority, will decide. 

On the one hand, this will prevent network operators from having to go to court in future in order to be paid for their services. On the other hand, it puts a stop to companies with market power, such as Meta, making unilateral and short-term traffic management decisions that endanger the functionality of the Internet as a whole.