Deviating from Net Neutrality: Assessing the impact on the implementation of economic replicability tests in Europe

The issue of Net Neutrality (NN), aimed at protecting consumer rights by preserving the openness of the Internet, has been fiercely debated in the United States (US) and the European Union (EU) the last decade. To that aim, binding new rules were adopted on both sides of the Atlantic in 2015. But, as of now, US calls into question the necessity of these rules after the appointment of Ajit Pai as the new Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The purpose of this article is to examine the potential impact of a possible deviation from NN principles in the EU, on the basis of end-user charging for prioritized data transmission, on economic replicability test (ERT) conduct, if European policy makers, mainly regulators, eventually, decide to follow US's deregulatory path.