Activities of Anne-Sophie PELLETIER related to 2021/0045(COD)
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on Roaming on public mobile communications networks within the Union (recast)
Amendments (9)
Amendment 39 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 19
Recital 19
(19) Given that the Union is a party to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD), the provisions of the Convention are an integral part of the Union law and are binding upon the Union and its Member States. The UN CRPD requires its parties to take appropriate measures to ensure that persons with disabilities have access, on an equal basis with others, to information and communications technologies and systems. To that end, Directive (EU) 2018/1972 aims to: “ensure the provision throughout the Union of good quality, affordable, publicly available services through effective competition and choice, to deal with circumstances in which the needs of end-users, including those with disabilities in order to access the services on an equal basis with others, are not satisfactorily met by the market and to lay down the necessary end-user rights.”. In accordance with Article 109 of Directive (EU) 2018/1972, all end-users should have access to emergency services, free of charge, through emergency communications to the most appropriate public safety answering point (PSAP). Member States are also required to ensure that access for end-users with disabilities to emergency services is available through emergency communications and is equivalent to that enjoyed by other end- users. Importantly, pursuant to that Directive: “emergency communications are a means of communication that includes not only voice communications services, but also SMS, messaging, video or other types of communications, for example real time text, total conversation and relay services.” It is for the Member States to determine the type of emergency communications that are technically feasible to ensure roaming customers access to emergency services. In order to ensure that roaming customers have access to emergency communications under the conditions laid down in Article 109 of Directive (EU) 2018/1972, visited network operators should inform the roaming provider through the wholesale roaming agreement about what type of emergency communications are mandated under national measures in the visited Member State. In addition, wholesale roaming agreements should include information on the technical parameters for ensuring access to emergency services, including for roaming customers with disabilities, as well as for ensuring the transmission of caller location information to the most appropriate PSAP in the visited Member State. Such information should allow the roaming provider to identify and provide the emergency communication and the transmission of caller location free of charge.
Amendment 45 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital (29)
Recital (29)
(29) Roaming providers should be able to apply a ‘fair use policy’ to the consumption of regulated retail roaming services provided at the applicable domestic retail price. The ‘fair use policy’ is intended to prevent abusive or anomalous usage of regulated retail roaming services by roaming customers, such as the use of such services by roaming customers in a Member State other than that of their domestic provider for purposes other than periodic travel. Roaming providers shouldmust, in cases of force majeure caused by circumstances such as pandemics or natural catastrophes which involuntarily extend the period of temporary stay of the roaming customer in another Member State, consider extending the applicable fair use allowance for an appropriate period period which covers at least the duration of the extended stay due to the exceptional circumstances, upon a justified request by the roaming customer . Any fair use policy should enable the roaming provider’s customers to consume volumes of regulated retail roaming services at the applicable domestic retail price that are consistent with their respective tariff plans.
Amendment 47 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 35
Recital 35
(35) A contract which includes any type of regulated retail roaming service should specify the characteristics of that regulated retail roaming service, including the expected level of quality of service. The provider should make available information on relevant factors that can affect the quality of service, such as availability of certain technologies, coverage or variation due to external factors such as topography. se specifications should include clear and comprehensible information on the level of quality of the service, including information on the transfer rate and the available access technologies of each visited operator in each Member State. The provider should also be obliged to provide all relevant information on the factors which might have a greater impact on the quality of service, such as coverage or variation due to external factors such as topography. The specifications and information should be provided in line with BEREC’s data roaming retail service guidelines.
Amendment 66 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 47
Recital 47
(47) In addition, in order to avoid bill shocks, roaming providers should define one or more maximum financial and/or volume limits for their outstanding charges for data roaming services, expressed in the currency in which the roaming customer is billed, and which they should offer to all theirprovide all roaming customers, free of charge, with a guarantee that this limit will not be exceeded without prior warning and informed consent delivered via an appropriate notification, in a media format that can be freely consulted again subsequently, when that limit is being approached. There should be no exceptions to this guarantee linked to cases of force majeure, thus avoiding bill shocks during exceptional crisis periods. Upon reaching that maximum limit, customers should no longer receive or be charged for those services unless they specifically request continued provision of those services in accordance with the terms and conditions set out in the notification. In such a case, they should receive free confirmation, in a media format that can be consulted again subsequently. Roaming customers should be given the opportunity to opt for any ofwithdraw from those maximum financial or volume limits within a reasonable period or to choose not to have such a limit. Unless customers state otherwise, they should be put on a default limit system.
Amendment 83 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 9 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 1– point b a (new)
Article 9 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 1– point b a (new)
(ba) roaming providers may not insist on the exceptional application of additional retail roaming charges for the use of retail roaming services due to the protracted stay of a European citizen in a Member State, whatever the circumstances. Roaming providers shall ensure that roaming customers are not obliged to comply with any clause on the duration of roaming.
Amendment 92 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 13 – paragraph 1
Article 13 – paragraph 1
Without prejudice to Articles 10, 11 and 12, the visited network operator shall not levy on the roaming provider any charge related to the emergency communications initiated by the roaming customer and the transmission of caller location information. Visited network operator shall also not levy on the roaming provider any charge related other non-emergency crucial communications initiated by the roaming customer.
Amendment 112 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 18 – paragraph 2
Article 18 – paragraph 2
2. National regulatory authorities and, where relevant, BEREC shall make up-to- date information on the application of this Regulation, in particular Articles 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, and 12, 13, and 18 (new)publicly available in a manner that enables accessible to interested parties to have easy access to it, including to persons with disabilities.
Amendment 114 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 18 a (new)
Article 18 a (new)
Article 18a Accessibility of information provided to customers Roaming providers shall ensure that all information referred to in Articles 9, 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18 which is provided to customers, is accessible for persons with disabilities in accordance with requirements of Directive (EU) 2019/882 (European Accessibility Act), the information does not exceed a level of complexity superior to level B1 (intermediate) of the Council of Europe’s Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, as well as is provided in easy-to-read format.
Amendment 116 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 21 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 1
Article 21 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 1
The Commission shall , after consulting BEREC, submit two reports to the European Parliament and to the Council. Where necessary, after submitting each report, the Commission shall adopt a delegated act pursuant to Article 22 amending the maximum wholesale charges for regulated roaming services laid down in this Regulation. The first such report shall be submitted by 30 June 2025 and the second by 30 June 2029 . The reports shall include, inter alia, an assessment of effectiveness of this Regulation on ensuring equal access to electronic communications by persons with disabilities when travelling within EU/EEA.