Regulatory Lessons for Internet Traffic Management from Japan, the European Union and the United States: Towards Equity, Neutrality and Transparency

 By John Harris Stevenson and Andrew Clement, University of Toronto (2010)

In Global Media Journal (Canadian edition)   Volume 3, Issue 1, pp 9-29

 Concerns were also raised about the use of deep packet inspection for commercial advertising targeting, and by computer security firms, by the Article 29 Data Protection Working Party, which advises the European Union on privacy matters (Horten, 2009, February 19).

Citation: Horten, Monica. (2009, February 19) Privacy watchdog condemns traffic data amendment. IpTegrity.com. Retrieved February 7, 2009,

Proposed amendments to existing European telecom legalisation, EU Directive 2002/22/EC concerning “universal service and users’ rights relating to electronic communications networks”, were considered by the European Parliament in 2009. These amendments, popularly called “the Telecom Package 2009”, contained a number of recommendations dealing specifically with network management. These included provisions “to prevent degradation of service and hindering or slowing of traffic over networks”, and encouraging or mandating national regulators to establish minimum quality levels and provide up-to-date information for consumers concerning their QoS practices (European Union, 2009, December 18). Some amendments, designed to ensure that users’ access to particular types of content or applications were not unreasonably restricted, were opposed by telecommunications providers (Horten, 2009, February 16).

Citation: Horten, Monica. (2009, February 16) Harbouring compromises in the Telecoms Package. IpTegrity.com. Retrieved February 7, 2009,