BitTorrent throttling allowed under new net neutrality rules

The Body of European Regulators of Electronic Communication (BEREC) has published its implementation guidelines for Europe’s net neutrality rules, which allow ISPs to perform shaping and throttling, TorrentFreak reported.

Net neutrality proponents launched a campaign against the net neutrality rules in the European Parliament last year.

They warned that the rules allowed ISPs to charge for “fast lanes” and slow down access to parts of the Internet for commercial reasons.

The “EU Slowdown” movement gained the support of over 500,000 people.

Included in BEREC’s guidelines is a provision that ISPs are not allowed to offer a “sub Internet” service, where access to only part of the Internet is offered for free.

TorrentFreak noted there is also no outright ban on zero-rating.

BEREC’s guidelines also don’t regard all traffic as equal. ISPs are allowed to throttle certain types of traffic for reasonable network management purposes.

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