According to a draft EC document on the strategy, seen by the FT and Reuters, OTT providers compete with traditional telecoms "without being subject to the same regulatory regime". As a result, "it is necessary to design a fair and future-proof regulatory environment for all services," the document says. This is something long-argued by the incumbent operators, which claim the unfair competition and regulation are sapping any incentive to invest in their networks. The EC's new digital market strategy is also expected to include investment incentives for broadband networks, as well as the regulatory reform.
According to the FT, it also plans a "comprehensive investigation" into platforms such as Amazon and Google, to look at how they display search results and use customer data. In the document, the commission writes that the "growing market power of some online platforms" is "potentially raising concerns".
