The crisis in the telco sector cannot be resolved by taxing OTTs and the consumers who use their contents. It is the belief of Roberto Liscia, president of Netcomm, Italian digital trade consortium. The reference is to the proposal put forward by telecommunications operators to tax media companies that offer services and content directly via the Internet (that is, bypassing traditional distribution systems, such as digital terrestrial or satellite in the case of TV) for the transfer of services to their networks. An issue that is being discussed at a community level.
“Now that the public consultation has been launched by European Commissionwe believe we need to bring to general attention an issue that affects all internet users”, he underlines Smooth. For which, in a market that professes to be free and global in the interest of the consumer, proposing a measure of this type is anachronistic. “What is the sense of introducing a contribution paid by those who generate and/or make content available which is requested by the consumer and for which the latter already bears costs?”, is the question posed by the expert.
According to the position of telecommunications companies, in fact, any contribution would be borne only by the Ottsby virtue of their position on the market, “which would probably end up increasing the cost of their services to support the new tax introduced, to the detriment of consumers”.
With the latter already paying the connection fee to the telecommunications company and the cost of multimedia services to those who provide them. Liscia points out that such a solution would give rise to competitive asymmetries. “For example, a company that intends to operate in this market segment as a content platform, and that does not reach the market position of the platforms identified as top players, would not be required to pay the contribution”.
In the light of these considerations, the Netcomm president invites the legislator to carefully evaluate “the real impact of the measure on businesses and citizens, also making use of econometric studies”.