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YSEC Yearbook of Socio-Economic Constitutions 2020 pp 317–327Cite as

The Telecommunications and IT Infrastructure Sector

Part of the YSEC Yearbook of Socio-Economic Constitutions book series (YSEC,volume 2020)

Abstract

This chapter analyses whether European IT and telecommunications law provides any possibilities to ban direct investments and network supply by third country-companies. A closer look onto the prohibitions of discrimination and the concept of general authorisation shows that preventive investment control in general is neither intended nor justified by the relevant EU directives. Even when interpreting German eligibility requirements for admission to the frequency auction (5G), the main purposes of European telecommunications law—open competition and technological dynamism—hinder a strict exclusion of suppliers from third countries.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See e.g. Die Zeit (6 December 2018), 5G-Netz: Kontrolle ist besser.

  2. 2.

    Süddeutsche Zeitung (4 January 2019), Riskanter Anschluss.

  3. 3.

    tagesschau.de (30 January 2019), Sicherheitsbehörden warnen vor Huawei.

  4. 4.

    Frankfurter Allgemeine (2 February 2019), EU-Kommissar springt denen bei, die Angst vor Huawei haben.

  5. 5.

    In May 2019 President Trump issued the Executive Order on Securing the Information and Communications Technology and Services Supply Chain to ban transactions which pose “an unacceptable risk” to the national security, see e.g. The New York Times (15 May 2019), Huawei Is a Target as Trump Moves to Ban Foreign Telecom Gear; see also Segal (2018), p. 18.

  6. 6.

    Reuters (30 January 2019), Exclusive: EU considers proposals to exclude Chinese firms from 5G network.

  7. 7.

    Currently there are no concerns, see e.g.: Financial Times (14 April 2019), German regulator says Huawei can stay in 5G race; Frankfurter Allgemeine (15 April 2019), Bundesnetzagentur hat keine Bedenken wegen Huawei.

  8. 8.

    Directive 2002/20/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 7 March 2002 on the authorisation of electronic communications networks and services (Authorisation Directive), OJ L 108/21.

  9. 9.

    Directive 2002/21/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 7 March 2002 on a common regulatory framework for electronic communications networks and services (Framework Directive), OJ L 108/33.

  10. 10.

    Directive (EU) 2018/1972 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2018 establishing the European Electronic Communications Code (Recast)Text with EEA relevance, OJ L 321/36.

  11. 11.

    See e.g. Article 8(2) and recital 1, 4 Framework Directive; Recital 3 EECC-Directive; for a short overview see Gärditz (2018), marginal numbers 32–34.

  12. 12.

    Concerning the German Banking Act [Kreditwesengesetz] Schäfer (2016), marginal numbers 1–3.

  13. 13.

    Directive (EU) 2016/1148 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 July 2016 concerning measures for a high common level of security of network and information systems across the Union (NIS-Directive), OJ L 194/1; see Witt and Freudenberg (2016), p. 657 ff.

  14. 14.

    Article 7 of the NIS-Directive.

  15. 15.

    Cf. Article 14 of the NIS-Directive.

  16. 16.

    See e.g. Article 10(6) and recital 3, 27 Authorisation Directive; Article 8(4), 12(2) and recital 7 Framework Directive; Article 2(21), Article 40 ff. EECC Directive.

  17. 17.

    See e.g. Recital 94 EECC-Directive.

  18. 18.

    See further Grussmann and Honekamp (2013), marginal numbers 112, 126.

  19. 19.

    E.g. Article 8(2) Framework Directive; Article 3(2) EECC-Directive.

  20. 20.

    E.g. Recital 1 Framework Directive; Recital 23 EECC-Directive.

  21. 21.

    See also Grussmann and Honekamp (2013), marginal numbers 69–79.

  22. 22.

    Hindelang (2009), pp. 88–114.

  23. 23.

    Cf. Müller-Ibold (2010), pp. 115 ff.; Hindelang and Hagemeyer (2017), p. 885.

  24. 24.

    von Wilmowsky (2014), marginal number 44.

  25. 25.

    See for further information on the concept of goods according to Article 28 TFEU Epiney (2014), marginal numbers 8–14.

  26. 26.

    At least, none of the German commentaries on telecommunications law mention this question.

  27. 27.

    Article 3(2) Authorisation Directive, Article 12(2) EECC-Directive; for an overview see Klotz (2013), marginal numbers 121–125.

  28. 28.

    Cf. Article 5(2) Authorisation Directive; Article 45 ff. EECC-Directive.

  29. 29.

    Cf. Article 5(2), 7(3) Authorisation Directive; Article 48(4) EECC-Directive.

  30. 30.

    Cf. Article 6 Authorisation Directive; Article 13 EECC-Directive.

  31. 31.

    Article 6(1, 3) Authorisation Directive in conjunction with Annex A No. 16; see also No. 7.

  32. 32.

    Article 13(3) EECC-Directive in conjunction with Annex I. B. No. 4.

  33. 33.

    Article 10(5) Authorisation Directive; Article 30(5) EECC-Directive.

  34. 34.

    Article 6(1) Authorisation Directive in conjunction with Annex B and Article 9 Framework Directive; Article 13(1), 45, 47 EECC-Directive in conjunction with Annex I. D.

  35. 35.

    Annex B. No. 7 Authorisation Directive; Annex I. D. Nr. 7 EECC-Directive.

  36. 36.

    Cf. Fetzer (2018), p. 67.

  37. 37.

    Annex B. No. 1 Authorisation Directive; Annex I. D. Nr. 1 EECC-Directive.

  38. 38.

    Article 8(1)(2) Framework Directive; Article 3(4)(c) EECC-Directive.

  39. 39.

    I.e. the above-mentioned prohibition of discrimination, cf. Article 7(3) Authorisation Directive; for a short overview see Kühling (2013), marginal number 131.

  40. 40.

    Sec. 61(1, 2) Telecommunications Act [Telekommunikationsgesetz], BGBl I 2004, p. 1190.

  41. 41.

    Sec. 61(3) 2 No. 1 in conjunction with Sec. 61(4) 5 Telecommunications Act.

  42. 42.

    Cf. Article 58 of the Public Procurement Directive (2014/24/EU).

  43. 43.

    Mentioned in passing by Hahn et al. (2018), § 61 marginal number 21.

  44. 44.

    Annex B. Authorisation Directive; Annex I. D. EECC-Directive.

  45. 45.

    Article 6(4) Authorisation Directive; Article 13(4) EECC-Directive.

  46. 46.

    tagesschau.de (30 January 2019), Sicherheitsbehörden warnen vor Huawei.

  47. 47.

    Cf. Reuters (30 January 2019), Exclusive: EU considers proposals to exclude Chinese firms from 5G networks; Frankfurter Allgemeine (2 February 2019), EU-Kommissar springt denen bei, die Angst vor Huawei haben.

References

Literature

Legal Documents

  • Directive 2002/20/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 7 March 2002 on the authorisation of electronic communications networks and services (Authorisation Directive), OJ L 108, 24.4.2002, p. 21–32

    Google Scholar 

  • Directive 2002/21/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 7 March 2002 on a common regulatory framework for electronic communications networks and services (Framework Directive), OJ L 108, 24.4.2002, p. 33–50

    Google Scholar 

  • Directive (EU) 2018/1972 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2018 establishing the European Electronic Communications Code (Recast)Text with EEA relevance, OJ L 321, 17.12.2018, p. 36–214

    Google Scholar 

  • Directive (EU) 2016/1148 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 July 2016 concerning measures for a high common level of security of network and information systems across the Union, OJ L 194, 19.7.2016, p. 1–30

    Google Scholar 

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bucerius Law School, Hamburg, Germany

    Michael Fehling

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  1. Michael Fehling
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Law, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

    Prof. Dr. Steffen Hindelang

  2. Department of Law, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Assoc. Prof. Andreas Moberg

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Fehling, M. (2020). The Telecommunications and IT Infrastructure Sector. In: Hindelang, S., Moberg, A. (eds) YSEC Yearbook of Socio-Economic Constitutions 2020. YSEC Yearbook of Socio-Economic Constitutions, vol 2020. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/16495_2020_22

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