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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

EU Says Five Are Tardy on Telecom Rules

(CN) - The European Commission is pressing charges against five EU member states that it says have failed to implement new telecom rules.

Referred to the Court of Justice, Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Slovenia will face daily fines for failing to implement new commission regulations designed to protect consumers and their privacy.

All nations in the European Union were required to enforce the new laws by May 25, 2011. The five countries face fines of about $16,000 to $140,000 for every day the laws have not been applied.

One goal of the new rules includes giving EU citizens and businesses the ability to change cellular providers without having to change phone numbers within one business day. Cellular companies are also required to secure customer data and notify them promptly in the event of a security breach, the European Commission said in a statement.

The new regulations also stringently require companies to better inform users about the use of "cookies," and what happens to their personal data upon implementation of the tiny tracking software. The laws also give Internet service providers the right to pursue legal action against spammers.

Regulators say that the other 22 countries in the EU have already rolled out the new rules. When and if the other five countries implement the laws, the commission reserves the right to cancel the court action.

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